I’m an 40 year old mom with 3 wonderful boys and a full time job, and this spring I spent more hours researching summer camps than I spent actually working. That is not an exaggeration. I have the browser history to prove it.
What happens to me is probably similar to what happens to a lot of you. The school calendar gets released, you unintentionally ignore it due to aforementioned full time job and kids, and as you’re looking up from your pile of halloween costumes and rotting pumpkins, you start getting emails about upcoming holiday parties and Christmas break. You scramble together PTO and holiday movies to keep the kids entertained, and before you can take down the Christmas lights summer camps are being released. How. Does. It. Happen. So. Fast.
Suddenly I’m playing logistics Tetris for three kids who are at three completely different stages of life. My 8-year-old wants anything with a ball in it. My 5-year-old wants to do whatever our 8-year-old is doing but can’t because of his age, and my 3-year-old just needs someone to keep him from eating sand for six hours.
So I do what any reasonably organized, slightly unhinged parent does: I build a spreadsheet. Camp name, price, hours, ages, location, whether they take field trips or swim, whether “we provide lunch for $8/day” will fit in the budget. I have rebuilt this spreadsheet from scratch more times than I want to admit, because every camp lives on its own website, half of them haven’t been updated since 2019, and exactly none of them talk to each other.
I love traveling. I love going to the gym. I try (try!) to keep my boys off screens more than they’d like. And somehow the thing that wipes me out most as a parent isn’t the wild boys, the workouts, or the packing lists and itineraries for trips. It’s trying to figure out what to do with three kids for a week in October when school randomly decides to take a break.
I know I’m not the only one. I’ve been in group chats with other parents that are asking the exact same questions I’m googling at 11pm: “Anyone know a good camp for a 5-year-old in Highland Village?” “Why can’t I find a camp that starts BEFORE I have to be at work?” We’re all out here rebuilding the same spreadsheet, separately, over and over, every single school break, in every city in the country.
So I’m building the thing I’ve wanted for years: one place where you can search every camp in your city, actually compare prices, ages, days, hours side by side, all in one view instead of having thirty tabs open like it’s a part-time job. No more missing out on great camps you never even knew existed near you. No more spreadsheets (okay, maybe still a few, old habits die hard).
Stay turned for more details on what’s to come to help kids get Booked in Camp!