From the Mouths of Babes... 7/18/2001
"From the mouth of babes comes the truth."
That is my mother's favorite expression. She truly believes that young children are the only ones in this world that tell the complete truth. Usually that quote makes me laugh, but after today's little episode, it made me even more upset.
I'm a day camp counselor for five days a week, seven hours a day. I take care of 9-14 six and seven year olds each day. I decided to write a little synopsis about one of my campers so you can see the whole picture. Her name is Caliegh. Beautiful name, beautiful girl. Very petite, very skinny, short wavy brown hair, huge blue eyes, the works. She's a living doll. At first she was my favorite camper. She's outgoing, she says some really funny things, and she's just an overall cutie pie. Recently, I'm starting to see another side of this kid. She demands quarters from me so she can play video games or buy a stupid toy. If I refuse, she throws herself on the floor and doesn't stop until one of the other campers gives her a quarter. She runs away from me constantly and doesn't listen when I call her back. She's starting to hit other kids and almost made one of them cry yesterday when she called him a "weisel" and then stole his ball. To state it plainly, she's an overall bitch. The odd thing is that she'll never act like that in front of her mother, or Diane, my boss. I don't know how many of you watch the cartoon show, "Rugrats," but Caleigh reminds me of Angelica.
Anyway, so today Caleigh was acting like a piece of crap. During snack time I grabbed the back of her shirt when she tried to run away...I didn't grab the shirt hard, just firmly enough so she couldn't bolt. Well, she kept squirming and finally I just let the shirt go. She staggered and fell to her knees. When she walked away I kind of giggled and forgot about it. (She wasn't bleeding or crying, but she knew that I was pissed. I wasn't trying to seriously injure her, just trying to get her attention). Anyway, out of the corner of my eye I see Caleigh go over to the art teacher.
**Quick side note-my co-counselor is names Teal. At first she was nice, but she's sort of a snob now. She doesn't really help with the kids, doesn't discipline them whatsoever, etc. The art teacher is Teal's best friend, so they basically hang out together and leave me and my two CIT's alone with the kids. (CIT= Counselor in Training). I'm not too fond of the art teacher either.
Caleigh points to me as she's sobbing into the art teacher's shirt. I shrugged and ignored it, figuring Caleigh was being a drama queen as usual. The art teacher comes up to me and says, "Now what's this about you hitting Caleigh? She told me that you grabbed her by her shirt and threw her down." I tried to explain what happened, but it looked bad for me. I mean, it's my word against a six year-old's. Luckily, my CIT had seen everything that had happened so I didn't get into too much trouble.
Later in the day, Caleigh had obviously gotten over her intense pain and suffering. She openly prefers Teal to me, but whenever she has to go to the bathroom, or she needs help finding a lost towel or something she always comes to me. In fact, all the kids come to me when they need to go to the bathroom or they need help. I'm not sure whether to be upset or flattered. Anyway, Caleigh had asked me for the fourth time to take her to the bathroom. As she's in the bathroom, she says, "You know Artist, you're just about as tall as my mommy. You're fat like her too. But that's ok. That's the way God made you. Maybe when you're older you'll become skinny." I was so stunned I asked her to repeat what she had just said. She repeated everything loud and clear, giggling the whole time. First of all, Caleigh's mother is cracking 200 pounds, with a really bad reddish brown dye job. Not that I have anything against chubby people, or people with bad dye jobs, but c'mon!!! I do not look like Caliegh's mother. I have terrible self-confidence, but even I can admit that one. I'm 5'3" and 130; it's not skinny, but I'm not obese. Even little kids think I'm ugly...As we were leaving the bathroom, we passed full-length mirrors. Caleigh stopped to say thoughtfully, "You look really ugly in those mirrors." I wanted to cry and sink into the floor. From the mouths of babes...
Until later
Artist
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