Camp Pain

By Eugenie Allen

For the past five years my husband and I have been telling our 10-year-old, who is quite possibly the freest spirit on the East Coast, that maybe she can go to sleep-away camp next summer. But early this year she finally called our bluff, forcing us to move on to "We'll think about it." That was before we encountered the unfortunate correlation between the stock market and summer-camp enrollment.

During the past five years of double-digit gains in the Dow, enrollment at residential and day camps has swelled by 8% to 10% a year, to an expected record of 9 million kids this summer. Coincidence? I don't think so. Hundreds of thousands of the little squirts are headed for private residential camps where fees run as high as $125 a day. Our daughter hoped to be bunking with them.

We didn't know it yet, but the fates were against her. By January, before we had even visited kidscamps.com many early bird discounts had expired, and an informal survey of about 100 New England camps showed that 90% were already half booked. Unaware of the gathering storm, we wasted weeks debating woodsy arts camp versus a more educational experience. (Our puny portfolio has managed to snooze through the stock boom, so we needed to get our money's worth.) In March, we were dismayed to learn that February was Sign Your Kids Up for Camp Month.

Not to worry, said Susan Greenberg, project director for a reference called Peterson's Summer Opportunities for Kids and Teenagers: "There are thousands of choices out there, so focusing on just one is really tunnel vision." One of her favorites, Campus Kids, operates two sleep-away camps in New Jersey and Connecticut from Monday to Friday, so campers can spend weekends at home. It sounded perfect for a mom with separation anxiety, but they had a waiting list for 10-year-old girls.

So keep looking, Greenberg said, shrugging. It helps to be flexible. For instance, young children who aren't ready to leave home may enjoy a day camp that targets their favorite sports. Older kids with many interests can sample several intensive one- or two-week programs.

This was sounding a lot like what we'd patched together in the past. One August our older daughter spent a week cleaning a stable (cleverly disguised as "horse camp") near the cottage we borrow every summer. After we got home, she did a week of gymnastics camp, and she and her little sister went to Bible camp. This summer our seven-year-old plans to attend the town rec department's $50-a-week day camp. But her big sister was increasingly desperate to head for the hills.

I still hesitated, perhaps because my camp memories include a broken arm. I asked Rodger Popkin, president of the American Camping Association, how you will know when your kid is ready. "You want them to go when they think they can conquer the world," he said, "and that window may close sooner than you think."

Popkin obviously never met our 10-year-old, who brazenly lobbied for a California camp until we warned her to quit while she was ahead. We finally lucked out with a terrific-looking three-week academic program in Massachusetts. If she likes it, we're told, we should sign her up for next summer before check-out time on the last day.

See our website at time.com/personal for more about kids' camps. You can e-mail Eugenie at eugenie_allen@yahoo.com