open letter #2

Dear Mother of two of my former campers,

There are several things that I think you should know. I’m going to put them in numerical order so that you can understand them. Ahem.

1. Do not write a nasty letter about me to my employer without knowing the whole story.

2. When I write home letters every single day saying “Your daughters aren’t participating” or “Your daughters only talk to each other” or “We can’t seem to get your daughters engaged in any of our activities”, you should probably take this into consideration in a larger context.

3. If you are going to write a nasty letter, at least put your name on it so that someone can call you to either explain or apologize. Especially when it turns out that you are WRONG WRONG WRONG - this means that I am not allowed to call you and say “Listen. You have it wrong, and I am going to set you right.” even though I know perfectly well who you are.

4. I am not going to ignore all of my other campers - who are following the rules - in order to cater to your daughters.

For future reference, our rule for checking out at the end of the day reads as follows: Camper comes up to Counselor. Camper tells Counselor ‘Check-Out Code Word of the Day’. Counselor responds with ‘Response Code Word of the Day’. Counselor gives Camper daily packet. Camper may then leave with guardian.

The reason that your daughters were the last ones checked out every day was because they could not even open their mouths long enough to tell me the code word. It is not because I was neglecting them. It is not because I was treating them in an unprofessional manner. It was because there are rules at this camp, and your daughters were not following them. Of COURSE I was going to check out the other kids first, since the other kids were following the correct procedure. A procedure, might I add, that was set in place for the protection of YOUR DAUGHTERS. Once the kids who know how to follow simple instructions checked out, then I had time to come over and give your kids the special attention you apparently think they needed. I was not going to make the other parents wait while I brushed their kids aside and said “Hey there bucko, you’re just going to have to settle down. I have a couple of disinterested kids that need to be my priority today.” I put up with your girls’ clearly-broadcast-ennui all week, and I watched them convince some of the other kids - who were originally pretty fascinated by what we were doing - that it really wasn’t interesting enough to merit their attention.

I have already had a really terrible week and this is DEFINITELY NOT HELPING.

Best Regards,
Freesia