For a lot of parents, summer used to have a rhythm. You waited for the registration email in March, you picked a few weeks of day camp, and you moved on with your life. That rhythm is gone. This year, many families opened their inboxes to a single word they were not expecting: waitlisted.
Camps that once took reservations well into spring filled their spots months earlier than usual. Popular programs closed enrollment before some parents had even started shopping. And the ripple effect is real. When the reliable option disappears, families have to invent a new plan, often on short notice and with a working calendar that does not pause for the season.
The strain is bigger than any one family. Reshma Saujani, founder of Moms First, told ABC News that parents everywhere are "struggling to find childcare for when school is out," many of them waiting to hear whether their child cleared a camp waitlist.
The good news is that parents are proving to be remarkably resourceful. Instead of scrambling for one perfect camp, they are stitching together something more flexible, more affordable, and in many cases more fun. Here is what the summer is actually starting to look like.
Why summer camp waitlists are growing
Several forces are stacking up at the same time, and together they explain why so many camps hit capacity early.
Demand is up. More households have two working parents, more jobs expect year round availability — a shift felt most sharply by the mothers watching remote work quietly disappear — and the stretch of unstructured summer weeks feels longer than ever when there is no default coverage.
Supply is tight. Running a camp is expensive. Staffing shortages, rising insurance costs, and the price of everything from bus rentals to lunches have pushed some programs to cap enrollment or trim the number of sessions they offer. Fewer spots plus more families equals a waitlist that forms fast. It is the same math squeezing care at every age: the childcare cliff never really resolved, and infant care in some states now costs more than college tuition.
Parents are also planning earlier because they have learned they have to. Once word spreads that a beloved camp closed in February last year, everyone races to register the moment sign ups open. That early rush is now baked into the cycle, which pushes the deadline even earlier the following year.
The result is a squeeze that catches even organized families off guard. Kivilcim Stasik, a New Jersey mom, told Fox Business that within minutes of registration opening, "all those spots are gone." If you are on a waitlist right now, you are far from alone, and you have more options than the enrollment page suggests.
The rise of "camp at home"
The most talked about alternative this summer is what parents are calling camp at home. The idea is simple. Instead of outsourcing the whole week to a single program, families design their own loose schedule with themes, summer activities, and a little structure to keep the days from melting into screen time.
A typical camp at home week might look like this. Monday is science day with kitchen experiments and a nature walk. Tuesday is art day with a big messy project on the porch. Wednesday is a field trip to the library, a splash pad, or a local museum. Thursday is baking or building. Friday is a movie and a slow morning. The theme carries the day, and the kids get the feeling of camp without the drive or the drop off line.
Parents love it for a few reasons. It costs far less than tuition. It flexes around a work schedule. And it lets kids follow their own curiosity instead of a fixed roster. It also answers a frustration many parents share about the cheapest fallback options. A New York City mom named Torres told the Hechinger Report that a free school camp left her kids on screens too much, and "that was the only choice that I had."
The trade off is obvious. Someone has to plan it and be present — which is one more line on the invisible list of research, comparison, and scheduling that usually lands on one parent — and that is exactly why the next two strategies matter so much.
Sharing childcare with other families
Camp at home gets a lot easier when you are not doing it alone. Across neighborhoods and group chats, parents are teaming up to share the load.
The setup varies, but the spirit is the same. A few families agree to rotate hosting duties. On Monday and Tuesday the kids gather at one house, midweek they move to another, and everyone takes a turn planning activities and supervising. One parent covers a morning so another can log a few hours of focused work, then they swap. It is childcare, reimagined as a group project.
The benefits go beyond covering hours. Kids get built in playmates, which is half of what they loved about camp in the first place. Parents split the cost of supplies and the mental effort of coming up with things to do. For some families it is less a nice idea than a necessity. In rural West Virginia, single moms band together because camp is simply out of reach. Meghan Hullinger, who told The 19th that a two week camp could run her thousands of dollars, put it plainly: "I make $25,000 a year, so that's not possible." And the whole thing builds a small support network that tends to outlast the summer.
A few things make shared childcare run smoothly. Agree on the basics up front: screen time rules, snacks, allergies, pickup times, and how you will handle a sick kid. Keep the group small enough to stay sane, usually three or four families. And put the rotation in a shared calendar so no one is guessing whose turn it is. A little structure at the start prevents a lot of friction later.
Leaning on grandparents
For families lucky enough to have them nearby, grandparents are quietly becoming the summer's most valuable players.
More grandparents are stepping in to cover a day or two each week, and many are thrilled to do it. It gives them real time with the grandkids, the kind that vacations and holidays never quite deliver. For parents, it is trusted care with a flexibility no camp can match, and it usually comes without a tuition bill.
The families who make this work best treat it like a real arrangement rather than an open ended favor. They agree on which days and hours, they are clear about activities and any rules that matter to them, and they make sure grandparents feel appreciated instead of taken for granted. Small gestures go a long way, whether that is covering gas and outing costs or simply saying thank you often and out loud.
It helps to keep the days manageable, too. A grandparent watching two energetic kids for eight hours may need backup, so pairing their day with a planned outing, a visit to the park, or a shared afternoon with another family can keep everyone happy and rested.
Making a patchwork summer work
The reality for most families is that no single solution covers the whole break. The winning approach this year is a patchwork. Maybe your child gets two weeks of the camp you did land, a couple of grandparent days, a shared childcare rotation with neighbors, and a few themed camp at home weeks sprinkled throughout.
To keep the patchwork from unraveling, a few habits help. Map out the whole summer on one calendar so you can see the gaps before they arrive. Fill those gaps early, because the good options still go fast even outside of formal camps. And build in a little slack, because kids get sick, plans fall through, and a flexible week is easier to shuffle than a rigid one.
If you are still sitting on a waitlist, stay on it. Spots open up as other families' plans change, and a call to the camp director asking to be kept in mind rarely hurts, and the American Camp Association camp finder can surface accredited programs with openings near you. In the meantime, the alternatives above are not a consolation prize. For a growing number of families, they are turning out to be the better summer.
The bottom line
Summer camp waitlists are growing, and that pressure is not going away anytime soon. But the parents navigating it are landing on something worth remembering. When the default option disappears, you get to build one that actually fits your family. Camp at home, shared childcare, and a grandparent or two can add up to a summer that is cheaper, more flexible, and full of the connection that mattered all along.
So if your inbox delivered a waitlist this year, take a breath. You have more room to improvise than it feels like right now, and plenty of other families are figuring it out right alongside you.
Frequently asked questions
Why are summer camp waitlists getting longer?
Two things are happening at once. Demand is up — more households have two working parents, and more jobs expect year-round availability, so there is no default coverage for the summer weeks. And supply is tight: staffing shortages, rising insurance costs, and the price of everything from bus rentals to lunches have pushed some programs to cap enrollment or cut sessions. Fewer spots plus more families equals a waitlist that forms fast, which then pushes everyone to register earlier the following year.
What is "camp at home"?
It's a loose, parent-designed week built around daily themes instead of a single enrolled program. A typical version: science day with kitchen experiments and a nature walk, art day with a messy project on the porch, a midweek field trip to the library or splash pad, a baking or building day, then a slow movie morning to close the week. The theme carries the day, so kids get the feeling of camp without the drive or the drop-off line — at a fraction of tuition.
How does shared childcare between families actually work?
A few families agree to rotate hosting. The kids gather at one house early in the week, move to another midweek, and each parent takes a turn planning activities and supervising — one covers a morning so another can log focused work hours, then they swap. Kids get built-in playmates, and parents split both the cost of supplies and the mental effort of inventing things to do.
What should you agree on before starting a childcare swap?
Cover the basics up front: screen time rules, snacks, allergies, pickup times, and how you'll handle a sick kid. Keep the group small enough to stay sane — usually three or four families — and put the rotation in a shared calendar so nobody is guessing whose turn it is. A little structure at the start prevents a lot of friction later.
How do you ask grandparents to help without taking advantage?
Treat it like a real arrangement rather than an open-ended favor. Agree on which days and hours, be clear about activities and any rules that matter to you, and keep the days manageable — a grandparent watching two energetic kids for eight hours may need backup, so pair their day with a planned outing or a shared afternoon with another family. Small gestures matter: cover gas and outing costs, and say thank you often and out loud.
Is it worth staying on a camp waitlist?
Yes. Spots open up as other families' plans change, and a call to the camp director asking to be kept in mind rarely hurts. While you wait, the American Camp Association's camp finder can surface accredited programs with openings near you — and map the whole summer on one calendar so you can see the gaps before they arrive.
