👀 THE PROBLEM
Summer camp brings up nostalgic memories of wooden cabins, lunchtime cheers, and making new besties.
Or, if like me you grew up in the 90s, it brings up memories of Patrick Swayze and, “nobody puts baby in a corner”.
But summer camp in 2025 feels like a horror movie. Camp ends at 3pm. Doesn’t cover the first or last week of summer. And, oh yeah, it filled up .0025 seconds after registration opened.
OK but why though?
Why is this the system? Why do we struggle every year to patch together childcare in a system where supply and demand are never in sync?
And is the stress of summer camp about logistics? Or maybe, is it about the clash between the summer we imagined and the one we’re actually trying to survive.
😤 WHINE TIME
Now a quick break to get the whines out of the way. We can hold space for 60 seconds of full-blown, parent-rage venting.
Why the hell is supply and demand totally out of whack? Like don’t we know at this point how many kids there are who need camp?
Why don’t any camps last longer than 1-2 weeks. Like we just started to get in a rhythm. And now my kids routines is disrupted yet again.
Most importantly, corporate leaders, we’re being set up to fail! Hi, it’s me 🙋🏻♀️ and I am drowning with my responsibilities as a parent and employee!
And let’s not even talk about August. The month camps pretend they don’t exist.
🌞 REFRAME
Let’s breathe. (No really, inhale for 4, exhale for 6.)
Here’s what’s true:
Summer break wasn’t designed for working families. It was designed for a world where one parent didn’t work. And frankly it is still really hard when one parent is home!
The system is broken, we are not.
You’re doing an incredible job juggling the impossible.
There are people who are working on awesome solutions. (see more below).
And your kid? They’ll be okay. Whether they’re in nature camp, Minecraft camp, or “watching Minecraft again while I take my 6th hour of zoom calls” camp.
And maybe, summer break and camp is EXACTLY what our kids need more of in their over-scheduled, over-programmed, highly structured lives.
💡 CROWD-SOURCED SOLUTIONS
Here are some ideas I heard about from real parents:
⛺️Camp Co-Op – 4-5 families rotate “hosting” all the kids one day/week. I REALLY wanted to do this a few years ago but couldn’t find any willing families. Here’s Frugal Mama’s guide on How to Start a Babysitting Co-op.
🥪 Camp Sandwiching – Morning camp + paid teen sitter/nanny 3–6 p.m (this is what we’re doing this summer). Sorry bank account.
🌞 Summer Overlap – Adjusted work hours with your parent partner with early morning coverage and late afternoon coverage + guilt-free screen time.
🕰️Year Round School - Okay a bit more extreme, but I’ve heard from parents who swear that this is the solution to the 30% of the year that feels like hell. Here’s an interesting Scholastic article on the Pros and Cons of Year Round School.
🙋🏻♀️ Nanny Share - Get your neighbors together and pitch in on a nanny. Or I’ve even heard of families hiring a high school student to put on a neighborhood camp. Check out this article from Parents on How We Pulled Off the Perfect Nanny Share.
Have your own brilliant idea? PLEASE reply to this email. I’ll include the best ones in a future roundup.
🎤 EXPERT TAKE
I asked Jack Schott, a career camp director and innovator who has visited over 200 camps in 47 states, about the purpose of summer camp and we got deep. Honestly, he made me question everything I thought I was going to write about.
If you could redesign summer break from scratch to work better for both kids and working parents, what would it look like? His reframe on the question? Answer the question "what is the point of summer break for kids"? He shared how traditional school doesn't always give kids the opportunity to be truly social, moving through their environment freely. And so maybe the point of summer break for kids is to give them the critical space they need for unstructured play.
He told me kids aren’t having 90s summers, marked by tons of outdoor time, independence, and figuring out how to be bored. And this is a problem. For more on the impact this is having on our kids, check out Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt. So maybe summer break is this gift. A chance to think about what our kids are missing the most (and I don’t mean yet another activity to cultivate a specific skill) and try to build that in our summer care solution.
One thing you’d want parents in the thick of it to hear? There are still camps with space. And while camp directors are really busy right now with staff training or running early camps, don’t give up. Send the email. Follow up frequently. And negotiate. Find one friend to enroll with and ask the camp director for a 2 child discount.
As we closed things out, I was blown away by how deeply he understood child development and how much he centered our conversation on the child. And while sleep away camp likely won’t solve all of parents’ summer care gaps, he had me researching sleep away camps nearby for my daughters.
Learn more about Jack’s work and research by signing up for his weekly newsletter FULL of incredible advice here.
📊 VOTE FOR NEXT WEEK’S PARENTING PROBLEM
What should I dig into next?
Why are birthday parties a competitive sport?
(Themes. Favors. Bounce houses. Petting zoos. And don’t forget the plastic trash goodie bags.)
Why does packing school lunch feel like a full-time job?
(And why do they come home uneaten always?)
Why is it so hard to make (and keep) parent friends?
(We’re all desperate for connection but texting is the actual worst.)
Take the poll below!