Concerned over the amount of stress her own son was under, Sherri Mincher, a licensed massage therapist in Westminster, MD, opened a camp this year called Stress Busters. It’s intended for very young children, as and the title of the camp infers, it’s to help alleviate childhood stress:
Sherri Mincher, a licensed massage therapist in Westminster, wants to help. Thinking about her son and the anxiety he suffers, she started Stress Busters Camp.
The camp lasts for five weeks, and teaches children breathing, stretching and relaxation techniques.
Mincher also encourages children to share their stressful experiences with the group, so that they all can work on developing coping skills.
“It teaches them to be more self-aware when things happen,” she said.
Mincher conducted her first session in the spring; she hopes to have another session starting mid-July. The camp offers one 45-minute session weekly. The cost ranges from $90 to $113 for five weeks.
Mincher said she intends to limit each session to five children between the ages of 5 and 13.
“What I’ve found is a lot of these kids have social issues,” she said.
Other than the obvious that this woman is an idiot and any parent that sends their child to a massage therapist for a psychological pow-wow should be pummeled until they bleed from their eye sockets, there’s a reason why some kids are stressed: children have to make too many decisions nowadays.
TLDG had a child in her class (a six year old girl) that was struggling with every aspect of her grade, Simply put, she was not ready to move on to the next grade. So the principal, vice principal, TLDG, the special ed teacher and the psychologist all met with the mom to encourage her to keep her child back a grade. The moms answer to the whole thing was, “I’ll talk to my daughter to see what she wants to do”.
This child should be thinking when she can have playtime with her friends, not making life-altering decisions about her academic future.
Instead of leading a stress-free childhood, from the moment a child wakes up to the time he/she goes to bed, they’re under a constant bombardment to make decisions. Would you like pancakes or cereal, apple or orange juice for breakfast? Would you like to wear the pink Hollister or the blue Abercrombie top? What would you like for lunch? Would you like mommy or daddy to drive you to school ?(the child can’t walk to school, he/she might be abducted) Would you like to do your homework before or after dinner? What would you like for dinner? What would you like to watch on TV. Etc.
Make a freaking decision for the poor kid, you’re killing them.
Camp Stress exists because of parents like the massage therapist in the article. She wonders why her child is a mess and doesn’t understand it’s because she won’t let her own kid lead a normal childhood, instead the kid has to make decisions like he/she is the President of IBM. A five year old doesn’t need to share their *stressful experiences* with other children, the biggest stress a kid should have is not being able to open up a pack of gum fast enough. A child shouldn’t have to develop coping skills by discussing it with granola eating losers like the idiot camp director, a child develops those skills by interacting with other children.
Mincher should be ashamed of herself, and any parent that tries to be cool by letting their children make their own decisions should be bound, gagged, and left by the roadway where giant birds will peck at their skin until they are raw.
I know there are exceptions to the rule, and some kids are stressed through life circumstances, but parents should be trying to eliminate as much stress from their child’s lives as possible, not sending them to someone else to do it.
That’s my opinion, and damn it all if it isn’t 100% correct.
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