Help,
We went camping last night with our 3 wonderful children. The 16mo. old was a nightmare. It was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bab camping nightmare. He did not want to be in a carrier. Haak wanted to play by the fire and run to the road to see the cars coming. It was hot and the bug were out. My husband and I used to camp every weekend. He is still a outdoors man but I have become a lover of air conditioning and no bugs.
I made a ring of wood around the camp fire to have a barrier around the fire, but that made Haak play with the wood.
Any tips would be nice. I may just tell my husband Haak and I will sit the next one out and let my dh take the 2 older kids. I hate to dissapoint my dh, but I really did not have any fun.
Beth

I'm sorry to hear it did not go well!

I love to camp and hike! I did it all the time in college. Life was so much easier than. Now with my husband when we go on a camping trip for a week, we first start out intending to backpack camp in tents and totally rough it, but then towards the middle of the week we rush to a hotel with showers and AC, lol. He's a city man (comes from Toronto) so he's not used to tent camping, and then I too hate the bugs and heat.

Plus camping is not as much fun when you turn vegetarian and can't grill out. Veggies are fun to grill though, maybe I could learn how to grill tofu or something.

My babysitter camps with her 7 mo DD and dog and they have a good time. Her Sabrina though can't run around yet and her dog is used to camping. I suppose things are different with 3 children that can all run around.

I hope to hear some better suggestions, I'd love to try camping sometime next summer when hopefully I have some time. :)

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Angela
Mama to Satori (11/04)

I'm so sorry to hear that it didn't go well. We have camped quite a lot in the past years since dd's were born. The best thing that helps us is that my parents had a camper and were there to help! I would recommend going with another couple or family if at all possible.

Hmmmm...let me think--I don't know what has really made it better. My mom has a pack and play, and while dd #1 didn't care for it or spend much time in it, it did give us a safe place to sit her down for a few minutes--I'm assuming yours is too big for that. We always had toys and a blanket for her to play on as well. Maybe you could get one of those child tents to use as a "playroom" of sorts? The campground that we camped at had a playground and beach area to swim at and that always took up a lot of our time. We also didn't light a fire until closer to bedtime and the kids were usually winding down and weren't so wild around the fire by then. We also took little ride on toys and bicycles.

This is probably all stuff that you have thought of--I wish I could think of something wonderful to help you enjoy the outdoors more. Good luck and let us know if you find something that works!!

 

Stacey

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SAHM mom to 2 beautiful girls

Good idea to leave the fire until bed time. We should just pack a cold sandwich for dinner instead of hamburgers and hot dogs. I also think location would be key. If we requested a site near the playground that would have been nice. I also think his age is the barrier. If he were younger wearing him would work, but he is 17m. and a runner.
Thanks,
Beth