It’s 6:59 a.m. at the West YMCA in Traverse City.
In one minute, registration opens for the YMCA’s summer programs, and Senior Program Director Thomas Graber is in his office, hoping the online system will hold up.
Because like in years past, there are so many kids and not enough spots.
The clock hits 7 and he opens up the registration portal. The applications come pouring in. Graber estimates he will have hundreds of applications by the end of the day.
He might not have to wait that long. By 7:02 a.m., 174 applications have been filed. And if this seems frenzied, you should have seen how they used to do it.
Camping out
In previous years, the YMCA had registration in person – with people lined out the door in tents and sleeping bags.
“The people at the front of the line had been there for hours,” said Crystal Decora, who has been through this process before. “We got there at midnight and it's definitely stressful. I'm fortunate enough to have the ability for my husband to be home with my kids while I'm camping out all night long, but other people were there at one o'clock in the morning but they had to bring their kids along.”
“You could see people walking up and their heart just dropped because they knew there's only 200 spots."
Crystal Decora
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The need for child care across the United States is enormous. A 2023 national study chronicled the high demand and also the lack of affordability faced by parents and families.
In Traverse City, the line last year grew beyond 100 people in the early hours of the morning.
“You could see people walking up and their heart just dropped because they knew there's only 200 spots,” Decora said.
Parents don’t have to camp out this year. Now they’re hovering over laptops and computers. Sarah Lance put in her application at 7:01, but is already considering a Plan B.
“I think we would try and find a high school or college age kid and have them come to the house,” she said. “Because for us, like the NMC day camps are 9 to 1. And so for a full working parent, it's difficult to do that schedule all summer long.”
Lance has seen friends have kids after her and she gives them all the same advice.
“If you're thinking of having a child, get on a waiting list. The waiting lists are just so long,” she said. “It's just, it's scary for, you know, scary for parents. Like, where do you take your kids?”
By the time the registration was finished at the West YMCA, Graber and his team had received 700 applications. There were 200 spots. The rest went on a waitlist.
Not that profitable
Despite a full enrollment, Graber says that their camps — and childcare in general — are not incredibly profitable.
“It's not at all,” he said. “That's the intended purpose. If you're trying to run it as a business and trying to trying to turn a profit on it, that price point's got to be exponentially high.”
And while the lack of affordable child care is high across the country, northern Michigan presents particular problems.
“When you're looking at seasonal staff for the service-based industry in northern Michigan — whether it's wineries, restaurants, event centers — we're all competing for that same staff,” Graber said.
More reporting
IPR took an in-depth look at the region's child care issues — and some proposed solutions — in our series "A Crisis of Care," from late 2023. Read those stories.
