Parents scramble to sign up kids
Central Ohio parents are testing their website logons and passwords ahead of time. They’re setting phone alarms and calendar reminders. If the website connection drops, they try, try again.
It’s like attempting to buy tickets online for a major rock concert — only not nearly as cool, at least not for the person doing it. It’s time to register children for summer camps.
Working parents engage in this annual ritual in the winter and spring so their
school-age kids have someplace supervised and fun to go during those 10 or so weeks of summer break. Cultural institutions, colleges and city park systems offer weeklong experiences to suit almost any interest: soccer, basketball, cheerleading, the arts, foreign languages, horseback riding, cooking and more.
“Because we are a twoincome family, we have to have this,” said Columbus resident Aafreen Moses, mother of two. “It’s mandatory for us.”
Deb Boiarsky of Columbus and her husband likewise work full time and don’t have family members nearby who can watch the children when they’re home for summer.
“I remember when I was pregnant,” Boiarsky said. “As soon as I told people in the office, they asked me if I should be signing up for day care. I thought, ‘I’m barely showing. Is that really a good
idea?’ Little did I know that this was an indication of how early I would have to do everything.”
Jenny Lundine begins planning her family’s summer in February, including scheduling vacations and figuring out the weeks when her two children will stay with relatives. Then she fills in with camps.
Lundine set digital reminders for this week to log in and sign up for the Columbus Recreation and Parks camps.
At 7 p.m. — sharp — on Thursday, parents began registering for the city’s outdoor education camps, Camp Terra, Camp Walnut and Indian Village. Registration for the city’s other youth camps, including for arts and sports, starts at 10 a.m. Saturday.
Many camp openings are snapped up within minutes or hours.
The majority of registration happens online, said Wendy Frantz of the Columbus parks department, though some people still show up in person at the city’s community centers to register. Last year, Columbus parks registered children for 7,500 weeks of summer camp, an increase over the year before.
Affordability is one reason for the rush: Columbus residents pay between $85 and $100 a week, and non-residents pay $102 to $120. Camps elsewhere often cost double or triple that for a week.
Scheduling the patchwork of weeks can be complicated, especially for parents of multiple children. Suburban parks departments and groups, including Columbus Parent magazine, now hold summer camp expos — similar to bridal shows — where parents can learn about options.
When Boiarsky first started considering where to send her son a few years ago, she banded together with four or five other mothers. That February, they met at a bar to strategize.
This summer, Boiarsky’s children will spend some weeks at the Columbus parks
camps and at Camp Recky at Ohio State University’s RPAC — the Recreation and Physical Activity Center. They also will be trying places she heard about by word of mouth: Columbus Academy’s Summer Experience, a climbing camp with Vertical Adventures and a camp with Summit Vision in Westerville.
Online registration is the moment of truth. Even with all the research and planning, the tech part is somewhat out of parents’ control.
OSU’s Camp Recky is popular, serving about 250 campers in each of its 10 weeks, and in early March, it showed. The registration website was inundated, and would repeatedly freeze up or empty users’ “carts.”
“The first 10 minutes was happy-go-lucky, like click! click! click!” Moses said about logging in at 8:58 a.m. for the 9 a.m. start. “About 9:15 was when all hell broke loose.” It took her three hours.
Boiarsky’s experience was similar. “I don’t want my kids to see the string of text messages I sent!” she said.
Lundine was teaching a graduate class that day. When it took a break at 9 a.m., she hopped on the Camp Recky system. After 15 minutes, she had to give up.
The staff emailed her a form, which she sent back around noon. Her children ended up on a wait list for a specialty cooking class, but could still sign up for the regular afternoon camp.
Marci Shumaker, of OSU’s Recreational Sports Department, said the university plans to upgrade Camp Recky’s registration system this summer.
Technical issues aside, the parents were reluctant to criticize the camps, which they said are high-quality and convenient. It’s just another hectic part of being a working mom, Boiarsky said.
Columbus Parent magazine offers an extensive summer camp guide at www. columbusparent.com.