Time To Pick A Summer Camp

It is hard to believe that it is already time to begin making the arrangements for summer camp. It is not even Spring and we are busy reviewing brochures for summer camp. Maybe that is why I have a block of Iron Maiden playing on iTunes.

Summer camp. Book your space now or risk having to place your son/daughter on a waiting list. The good news is that you don't have to give them the full amount now, just a small token of your appreciation. Shall we say $500 a child. It is crazy, but so is taking a chance that they will have nothing to do this summer.

Just the thought of children staying home all day every day is enough to make a million mothers scream in frustration or is that terror. Either way, they want their kids out.

Of course there is the small issue of trying to make sure that you can afford to pay for your child's summer fun. If you are really lucky you are already sending them to a private school that has a healthy tuition. And that healthy tuition is supplemented by one fundraiser after another. Book drive, bagel sale, candy sale, wrapping paper, PTA dinner dance, silent auction etc.

It drives me a bit crazy. Let's say that the tuition for your child is supposed to be $10,000. By the time all of the fundraisers have come and gone you are stuck for another grand or two. It would be easier if they just chucked the freaking fundraisers and told us that it was going to cost $12,000. It would save so much heartache and I wouldn't have 1,498,987 rolls of wrapping paper and 2098 pounds of candy clogging the arteries of my already too small home.

The good news is that during the school year you can be relatively certain that your child will reward you for your hard work by telling you that school is boring, the teachers are so-so and that the kids are kind of mean. If you are really lucky they'll also tell you that they have figured out that the cafeteria is the benefit of the school recycling project. There is a reason why the pizza tastes like cardboard.

Eventually your little sweethearts will get to experience the joy of the camp you helped them to pick six months earlier. Remember that $500 you used as a security deposit. That same money that you needed desperately for something else will be returned to you in the form of the great compliment your child offers about their summer camp. You'll ask what they think and they'll say something profound like "it sucks" or "it is really boring."

And then you'll share in the same joy of parenthood that so many others do. Later on when you tell your parents about how rotten and ungrateful your children are your folks will start laughing and using terms like "payback" and "at last."

I suppose that it is what they meant in that Lion King movie when they sang about the Circle Of Life.