Crabby Camp Mommy...

Warning: Children mentioned, also crabby husband...

I have to run off today and shop and do various things. In the freezing bloody cold. I am feeling crabby about this because my darling husband set the tone for me at severe crab-o-meter starting last night, and darned if I know why. He came home last night to a lovely hot dinner, salad, dessert, happy children, (reasonably) tidy house. We were talking about our day, and March Break, and tomorrow's hockey championship and the after party. I had had a good day, with a government and media person I spoke too...all was well. He asked something about the kid's camps, and I told him I had it all arranged, I was just waiting for one person to get back to me about something.

And at that point he lowered his head on the table and muttered something about "why I left it up to you." (meaning me?) I ignored him, but from that point on, he continued to act particularly grumpy, finally leaving during dessert and going up to his office.

You see, he seems to have a strange preoccupation with the children's schooling, camp, music lessons and playdates these days, you know, MY DEPARTMENT. Gah...we had no money at all the last few years and so instead of the usual fantastic exclusive waiting list only sports camps, I threw in a few weeks of city camps and weeks with mom hanging around the house. We saw movies, went to the Science Centre, rented a Playstation, went to the park. Not bad I thought.

Problem, is that this erased all the years of *wow I can't believe you got them in to that sailing/computer/tennis/hockey camp* moments we had before. He's forgotten everything. Plus, he seriously believes that the only camps worth going to are sleepaway camps. Which I am completely opposed to.

This is where our relationship hits a few rocky areas. I grew up poor. (Yes another adoptee given to a poor family, even though my birth mother was lied to & told I was going to a middle class family who could give her more, but I digress...). He grew up wealthy, although his family lost their business later. He had a private schools and sleepaway camp and a second summer home and housekeepers. I had Catholic schools, (yes private Catholic high school, but at a steep discount for my family), and for summer we hung out around the neighbourhood. No music lessons, no camps, vacations were car trips to my relatives. We went to Disney once in my life, in a motorhome.

And reality is that most people in North America did not have a summer home or go to sleepaway camp for weeks on end. Even today, that is not the norm. I myself did not know anyone who went away to camp, ever. I knew people who went camping as a family, or went to daycamp, or did a weekend sleepover party at a friends house, but sleeping away from your family? For weeks? Bizarre...

So my compromise is that I will look into my oldest kid going to sleepaway camp for a few weeks this summer, but not the little one. And I have to check it out completely, top to bottom, plus I would like to be worth the money. They charge utterly outrageous prices, with a huge range, and not every one of them is well-run. I admit to being picky. Husband's take on this is that I am being unreasonable, and he doesn't see why we can't send both of them this summer, for 8 weeks of canoe-tripping in the far north. Nevermind how completely unsuitable this is developmentally, at $800/week, we don't have $13,000 to blow on that. In fact, only millionaires do. My idea is maybe we can mix in some fun sport camps at $300/week and do some vacation time, you know....WITH our children, the ones we worked so hard to have?

I know, you all think IVF costs a lot...have you checked out daycare & camp lately? Trust me, it only gets more expensive....

Basically I have no idea why he is sticking his nose in this, but he is, and it is driving me slightly batty. So I'm going to grocery shop now, and hope he resets his mood tonight. I may email him with the details of the kids March Break plans....I never had to justify any of this before...grrrr....