We dropped both of my daughters at camp last week. The 10-year-old was going for the first time. The 13-year-old was going for summer number three.

If you asked last week which one would have more nerves, would have said the 10-year-old. Everything was new for her.

Not quite. The returner was a bit more nervous.

She was getting her last texts in with her home friends. Running through in her head whether the camp friends would still feel the same as last summer. Working the nerves out loud in the car.

But when I thought about it, I’ve watched this pattern play out at camp after camp.

Because there are two flavors of nervous going into camp.

First-time nervous. Is camp going to be good for me? Am I going to figure this place out?

Returning nervous. Is it going to feel the way it felt last summer? Are the friends I made still going to want me around?

Directors underestimate the returning kind. Returners walk off the bus looking confident. They know the layout and the schedule. They also know exactly how good it was last time, and are worried it won’t be the same.

Which is why the twenty minutes at the cabin door belongs to your staff more than anyone. First-timer or returner, that arrival lands on their shoulders.

Back to the cabin dropoff.

13-year-old got to her cabin first. She walked in, and her best friend was already there, saving a bed. Instant relief.

Staff met us at the door. Handshakes with the parents first, then a quiet greeting for our daughter. They kept the other cabinmates moving around us while the moment landed.

Then we walked the 10-year-old down to her cabin. Different flavor of moment. Same staff choreography around us.

A few minutes in, the 10-year-old looked up from her new cabinmates and let us know we could head out. A Taco Cat game was starting, and she wanted in.

Your kid telling you that you can leave is the best sign a parent gets at drop-off. That moment does not just happen. It happens because the staff gave the parent room to be the parent, without letting the kid feel abandoned in it.

Here is what I want camp directors to hear as we sit in the middle of July.

Drop-off might be the most important twenty minutes of your entire summer. Your cabin staff either makes it possible for a kid to tell their parent they can go, or they don’t.

Everything downstream runs off that first moment.

The staff move that gets you there looks like almost nothing. Which is exactly what makes it worth training for.

My two are both at camp as I write this. Different flavors of nervous, both met at the cabin door by staff who were ready. Nerves solved.

Sincerely,
Dan Weir

Senior Consultant at Immersive1st

dan@immersive1st.com