Summer Camp Sign Up: The mental load nobody warned you about!

If you've done this before, you know. And if you haven't, well I'm sorry that you will soon join the club.

Summer camp sign-ups aren’t just a to-do, they’re a full-blown mental marathon. A marathon that somehow begins in January, when it’s still dark at 5 p.m. and summer feels like a lifetime away. Yet there you are, being asked to plan summer camp… six months in advance.

Welcome to the invisible stress of summer camp planning!

Planning for a Future Version of Your Child

One of the hardest parts? You’re not planning for the child you have now. You’re planning for the child your kid might be in June. I don't know about you, but I swear the day after Christmas, my kids were "over" the K-pop demon hunters that I spent weeks scouring the internet to find...

The camp they are obsessed with today?
The one they swear is their dream camp?
There’s a solid chance that by summer they’ll be deeply uninterested or passionately committed to some other camp you’ve never heard of.

And yet, decisions must be made. Deposits must be paid. Calendars must be locked.

This is mental load at its finest: predicting preferences, emotions, and developmental shifts months ahead—without a crystal ball.

The Calendar Jenga of Summer

Summer camp planning doesn’t exist in a vacuum. It collides with:

• Work schedules and blackout dates

• Conferences and work travel that might happen

• Family vacations that are still “TBD”

• Grandparents’ visits that are lovingly vague (“sometime in July?”)

• Coordinating drop-off and pick-up logistics across households

All of this has to be mentally simulated before a single button is clicked.

You’re not just signing up for camp. You’re running multiple future scenarios in your head, trying to avoid gaps, overlaps, or the dreaded “wait… who’s watching them that week?” realization. And even if you do get the camp you'd planned for, now you have to keep it all organized!

The Financial Gut Punch No One Mentions

Then there’s the money.

January is already financially tight. You’ve JUST finished paying for Christmas. You’re barely catching your breath when suddenly you’re asked to fork over hundreds (or thousands) of dollars in camp deposits.

Often non-refundable.
Often due immediately.
Often multiplied by more than one child.

And it’s not just one camp. It’s multiple weeks, multiple programs, each with its own portal, deadline, and payment structure. Your bank account is still recovering from December, and now summer is demanding its share months before it even arrives.

This adds another layer to the mental load: budgeting for something far away, deciding how much to commit now versus later, and hoping nothing changes that makes those deposits feel wasted.

The Co-Parent Communication Layer

Then there’s the additional layer of keeping your co-parent in the loop.

Sharing options.
Aligning on costs.
Confirming weeks.
Making sure no one schedules a work trip during the one week that requires extra coverage.

This is emotional labor and project management. And often, one person is holding most of it.

The 9:00 AM Hunger Games

And after all that planning?
After the spreadsheets, reminders, calendar blocks, and alarms?

You can still miss it.

Because camp sign-ups open at 9:00 a.m. on the dot, and if you’re in a meeting, getting a kid to school, driving, or simply human these spots can fill up in MINUTES.

The result is frustration, disappointment, and the quiet internal spiral of “I did all of that work and it still didn’t work.”

Why This Feels So Draining

What makes summer camp sign-ups so stressful isn’t just the logistics, it’s the cognitive load:

• Holding plans in your head

• Making decisions with incomplete information

• Managing other people’s expectations and emotions

• Managing money under pressure and uncertainty

• Knowing that even preparation doesn’t guarantee success

This is exactly what we mean when we talk about the mental load. It's the constant background processing that keeps families functioning, often unnoticed and unsupported.

Be Kind to Yourself

If summer camp planning feels overwhelming, it’s not because you’re disorganized or doing it wrong.

It’s because you’re being asked to do something genuinely hard. Plan far ahead, under pressure, with limited control, while juggling everyone else’s needs and your family’s finances.

That’s not a personal failing, that’s a systems issue.

So if you miss the 9:00 a.m. sign-up, or end up re-planning (again), or feel exhausted before summer even starts, be gentle with yourself.

You’re not “just signing up for camp.”
You’re carrying the weight of the summer.

And that’s a lot.