Week of July 14 is the only week both households can give. Camp North has the lake and a Wednesday bus you cannot meet. Camp South is closer, fills Friday, and your kid has already said it looks "like school." You have twenty minutes and a thread that will become a story about whose summers were free-range if you let it.
Two programs. One week. Ask them to pick.
This is a decision, not a vibe check
A decision hands them the outcome for that week. After they answer, that camp is the plan. If you are still going to book whichever you prefer, you wanted an opinion — say so, and do not be disappointed by a soft lean.
Close the list: North or South, deposit by Thursday. State your lean and the disconfirmer. "I lean South unless the lake week matters more to you than the Wednesday bus." That sentence does more work than a paragraph about independence.
A sufficient reply is "South" or "North, and I'll take the Wednesday bus." The reply is the point. A beautiful comparison that nobody answers is still an open week.
Hours, bus, cost — not the brochure's adjectives
Write each camp in a few lines a cold reader can use:
- hours and whether there is aftercare
- bus or pickup door
- cost and when the deposit is due
- the one constraint that already rules something out — you cannot meet a 3:10 bus on Wednesdays
Leave the marketing language in the brochure. "Transforms confident swimmers" is not a fact you can decide on. If your assistant summarized the sites, check every number. A wrong deposit date is worse than no brochure.
Do not attach the PDFs. If a line is missing, they will ask. The decision should fit on a phone in a grocery line.
Label guesses. "She will hate South because it looks like school" is your read of a ten-year-old sentence. "North still has six spots" is what the director said this morning, or it is inferred from a webpage — say which.
Keep childhood out of the week of the 14th
The session may contain your speech about camps you were sent to. That speech does not travel. You approve the package. Your private nickname for them stays off it.
They need no account. Email and a link. If they already use RelayLink, you need an accepted contact. A reply is how you know they have it. A fetched link is not a read. You will not see whether they have told the child.
If the answer is no to both, that is still an answer — and a different week, or no camp, is a second decision on a second page. When the next deposit is sitting in a session, connect your assistant and send the two programs as a closed choice.