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No more homesickness at camp
Originally appeared on spirituality.com
Homesickness isn’t just a summer camp issue. Some toddlers don’t want to leave their parents’ sides during their first days of nursery school. Teenagers starting college and living away from home for the first time might miss what’s been familiar. A parent on a work assignment in a faraway city could feel separated from his or her family.
Children attending sleep-away camp often seem especially prone to homesickness. In a study by the American Camp Association and Christopher Thurber, a psychologist, 83 percent of sleep-away campers surveyed experienced homesickness. The study offers helpful tips for handling homesickness, including encouraging independence in your child throughout the year and sending a personal item like a stuffed animal to camp. Most homesickness cases, according to the study, go away in a couple of days, but 7 percent of the cases are severe.
These studies are helpful indicators of what’s going on in collective thought, and provide some practical answers. But I’ve found that the most effective healing method is prayer.
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About the author
Rick Lipsey and his wife live in New York City with their four children.
