Campers from Hell 7/8/2002
I should write in my diary more. In school I often read my summer entries to make me feel closer to home. Its just I don't want to spend my summer vacation on the computer typing up entries.
I started my summer camp job. I hate it. They stuck me with the 2-3 year olds. I like kids, but not that much. Almost none of them are potty trained, so I usually get stuck doing the potty-runs. My first day a kid pissed on the floor, and generally all over himself. The other two kids I was with ran out of the bathroom and were found later by my junior counselor. I flipped out on a counselor who was passing by and told her to get one of the directors. Two directors came in; while they didn't exactly yell at me, they made me feel as if I was the one who did something wrong. I mean, yes, I shouldn't have yelled at that counselor, but you CANNOT take three three year-olds into the bathroom without any other adult help. Maybe they shouldn't allow such young babies into their camp...The bitch of the whole thing was that I got the kid, Dylan, INTO THE BATHROOM. He was maybe four feet from the toilet bowl when he had the accident. He also doesn't speak such great English, since he's some sort of Asian, which made everything worse.
The girls I work with are nice to me, but everyone talks behind everyone else's backs. Its ridiculous. My two group leaders are 24, and they're the worst. My junior counselor doesn't really say anything about anybody in front of me. I don't even want to know what my group leaders say about me behind my back. My mother says I shouldn't care, and she's right, but I don't like knowing that when I walk away, people are making comments.
I got into a tiff with the Preschool Director (basically my direct boss) on the first day. It was morning, and I was already stressed, and she asked me how many kids I had. My group leaders are in charge of keeping track of that while my main duties are helping change kids into bathing suits, going for potty-runs, and carrying the enormous bags those damn mothers pack. So when she asked me, I made the stupid mistake of saying "Too many," and she got pretty pissed. She embarrassed me in front of the other counselors by saying, "That is not an acceptable answer ARTIST! Counselors, what is an acceptable answer?" You know what? Leave me the hell alone, I have enough duties as it is. Go ask my group leaders, who don't have to deal with the kids pissing all over. (A group leader's responsibility is to stay with the group all day. So basically, the junior counselors and counselors are stuck with the constant errand-running).
Um, what else? Oh yeah, she caught me yelling at Serjan (pronounced Sir John), the group devil-child. He's the worst three year-old I've ever met. Even his mother doesn't like him, which may be the root to a lot of his behaviors. She once said to us, totally straight-faced, and in fromt of her own son, "You like him so much? You can have him."
So yeah...he annoys other kids, and lately, has been beating them up. When the kids were being picked up today, Serjan was doing something to this other kid Andrew, who's actually pretty cool. I didn't see the whole thing, or what started it, since I was helping taking care of the other eleven kids in our group. The mother, naturally, just walked into the camp grounds and saw everything. And guess who she blamed? Since I just turned around, I ordered Serjan and Megan, who was egging on Serjan, to get away from Andrew. The mother said that they were pulling on Andrew's arms for no reason. Which is believable, considering who was involved.
What pissed me off is that she started reprimanding me. I missed the first few seconds of the 'fight' and the second I saw something going on, I took action. I explained to her that Serjan had a behavior problem, and that we were going to take care of it. Naturally, Serjan's really large father is standing behind me and asked to know what was going on. (At this point I'm just wishing for a gun to kill myself. Maybe THAT will make the parents happy...). I kept apologizing, and she kept reprimanding me. Jodi, my group leader, comes up to Andrew's mom and tells her that she's going to talk to Serjan's dad. Andrew's mother walked away with her kid saying, "Don't worry, honey, JODI is going to take care of everything." Fuck you lady. I'm not the one putting my kid in camp at the ripe old age of three. Its not like these parents have no other options. This camp costs 2.5K. Anyone who can afford 2.5k for fucking SUMMER CAMP isn't working three jobs to put food on the table, you know? I officially hate people.
So yes, my job makes me want to get my tubes tied and has formed a chip on my shoulder against bitchy, rich parents. I look at the kids in my camp, and at their parents, and I want to scream. The kids in my psych ward are generally so cool and so sweet, yet they don't have a tenth of the opportunities as my campers. And my campers and their parents, with all their fancy upbringing, don't have a tenth of the class that my psych ward kids have. Anyway...Speaking of my volunteer work...
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