Friday, August 22, 2008

REmember?

I said Ben was so happy with his day camp and loved it? 'Member that? I really thought he was...he claimed to have fun and talked of a kid that he'd met last year who was there again, talked of his driving the ball far and sounded really happy.
Well, he is home with me today, the last day, because he didn't want to go. It would appear that the other kids in the group have been calling him names and punching him in the arm over and over. His asking the coach/counselor to stop them didn't produce any results worth discussing and the name calling etc continued.
He says he never threw any tantrums or anything to bring any of this on. With a kid like Ben you have to ask these things (What did you do to start all of this? Tantrums? Losing your temper with someone? Whining? Teasing?) but he says he never had one tantrum and didn't lose his temper with anyone before this started. They call him things like dirty little pig, dirty rat, a girl's name, and punch him in the arm repeatedly. The coach tells them to stop, they don't. No other action taken.
Am I pissed. Yes. Am I upset? Yes. Am I frustrated that my kid seems to attract bullies? Hell yes. The frustration is there more than anything because i wasn't there to witness anything and, my kid being the aggravating little guy he is, I must take his claims with a dose of salt. Even if he is aggravating does he deserve getting picked at all day? The coach should be enforcing his own authority over the group and making it (the name calling and arm punching) stop. For the price we paid for 5 days of golf instruction and fun, I expected better. We are not talking a cheap ass, run by unpaid teenage kids program here (like I worked at back in the day at the local Y).
I told Richard that if Ben was staying home with me all day, then HE must call the club and lodge a complaint. No "oh I forgot" etc until nothing can be done about it either.

3 comments:

K. said...

That really sucks about those mean kids being rude to Ben. Check out the First Tee program for golf, I don't know if they do it in the suburbs, but it's leadership through golf and it's working like crazy in NDG!

Tara said...

It must be really difficult to figure out what to do when you're not sure what really went on (did Ben actually do any teasing, tantrum-ing, etc.). Bottom line? Kids are mean, and being a kid sucks (I'm speaking from experience here).

Oh, and this it totally unrelated: I JUST noticed you've got a bunch of Flight of the Conchords songs on your player (I have to turn it off right away, 'cause I read your blog from work - Sssshhhhhh!!!). I only just discovered these guys! They are a RIOT! My current favourite is The Humans are Dead, particularly the binary solo. Too funny :)

Suldog said...

That's truly a shame. As the target of some amount of bullying and name-calling when I was younger, I empathize.