How To Avoid Separation Anxiety When Kids Go To Summer Camp

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – Lots of kids are getting ready for summer camp. While some children love it, others can have a hard time, especially if they're first time campers.

"What was it like?" CBS2's Cindy Hsu asked 9-year-old Vincent Schweitzer. "Very nervous. I kind of got used to it after the first day, made a couple friends and it was fun!" the boy said.

"Some friends who I met at camp in 6th grade who are still some of my best friends today, so I told them stories about that. A lot of the fun things we got to do," Schweitzer's father, Jon added about encouraging his children to try summer camp.

While most kids enjoy summer camp once they get settled, anxiety-filled meltdowns typically happen when kids are first dropped off.

"The best thing to do is to let them get on the bus and let the camp take over," Lauren Wexler, director of Camp Programs 92Y said. "Every summer, we take a camper out of its parents arms, put them on the bus, and the second the bus pulls away, turns on Lexington Avenue they're totally fine."

Fellow campers also have some advice for easing the anxiety of going to camp for the first time.

"Even if you are nervous and even if it is bad, which it probably won't be," 12-year-old Alex Schweitzer said. "It's not going to be your entire life."

Camp directors say it's often the parent who has more separation anxiety than the kids, so it's important to keep that in check and not to project that onto the child.