The SUMMER CAMP CONUNDRUM

School may be out, but for parents, trying to nab coveted slots to cover the hours, days and weeks is no picnic.

- KENDRA HURLEY

Theoretically, summer is seen as an idyllic season for children, with carefree sunny days spent with friends, possibly at camp. But for parents, especially those who work outside the home, this time of year can be one of nearly constant stress.

The perception of camp as a mere extracurricular enrichment is part of what makes securing summer plans a costly logistical nightmare for many families, says Raena Boston, cofounder of the national family advocacy organization Chamber of Mothers and a mom of three who lives in Florida. After all, for most U.S. kids under the age of 6 (68%), all their available parents are in the workforce, according to a 2022 survey by the Annie E. Casey Foundation. For those families, camp is child care, an essential work support that keeps kids safe when school is out so their parents can stay employed-there is nothing "extra" about it.

"Parents are not just putting kids in camp because they have all this disposable income," Boston says. "They need a solution to cover the 10 weeks kids are not in school and they need to go to work." Considering camp to be what Boston calls "a nice-to-have" when it should actually be considered "infrastructure" leads to a hot mess: a dearth of affordable and public camp options; a dizzying array of weeklong private specialty camps (such as soccer camps and theater camps) that pick up the slack but sometimes charge exorbitant prices; camps of all varieties ending hours before the workday ends and shuttering weeks before the school year begins; and parents-often moms-left to reinvent the wheel year after year, piecing together summer child care on a week-by-week and sometimes hour-by-hour basis.

CAMPS BOOK VERY EARLY