As much as I hate packing, I do think this is overdoing it a bit – some rich mothers in New York are actually hiring professional organizers to pack their kids’ trunks for summer camp. Believe it or not, each bag takes a whopping four hours to pack and costs no less than $250 per hour.

So what exactly goes into a bag that needs four hours of packing, you ask? Well, the idea is to fit in all the comforts of home in the luggage, including scented candles, delicate soap and 1,000-thread count sheets (nope, not kidding).

According to Barbara Reich of Resourceful Consultants, several mothers have approached her to do the job. “For a lot of mothers, particularly when their child is going away for the first time, it’s very stressful,” she said. “Clients will say, ‘I need to touch and feel the sheets for softness.’ But these are the kind of things they can control. They’re paying $10,000 for sleep-away camp, so they shouldn’t feel so bad for their child.”

Photo: Dan Haneveer

The ‘trunk requests’ have been catching on gradually – Barbara said she had just one client two years ago, five trunks last year, and 10 this year. Professional organizer Dayna Brandoff of Chaos Theory has already done four requests this year, and expects another 15 in June. Some of Dayna’s clients have even asked her to recreate their child’s bedroom within their bunks at camp.

“It’s really about bringing the feel of home to camp,” said Dayna. “A lot of the parents that I work with want to duplicate the bedding that they have at home. They’re sending plastic boxes and shelving to give their kids more space.”

Photo: Andrew Hall

It’s nice that these moms are super-concerned for their children, but some believe that this kind of hyperfocus might not be good for them. According to social researcher Wednesday Martin, “Women who are Type A, hard-driving, competitive career moms – that is, being a mom is their career – can hire staff, assistants, professional organizers to help them do it better.”

It might make sense to some, but personally, I don’t see the point of spending over $1,000 to pack kids’ luggage. They’re probably going to mess up everything the moment they get to camp, anyway. Some might call this over-parenting, but it sounds more like under-parenting to me?

Photo: NY Daily News