BlogHer - Let's go camping... with the kids - Comments

camping memories

Mommyto5 — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 19:10:54 -0500

The last time I went camping was in 1976 with the Girl Scouts. We were in the woods for two days in tents and I can't stand public restrooms never mind a toilet in the woods! I survived though and loved most of it, but never had a desire to camp ever again.

My kids are constantly outside. We spend most of our summer at the beach and their friends camp..they've never asked to do that. I'd like to give it a try but I think I want to get a Winnebago and not a tent.

Cheryl

http://dailyblonde.blogspot.com

I'd love to try it, too!

Asianmommy — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 18:56:56 -0500

You're right--I'd love to be a camper, too. But I have no experience, & neither does my husband. It sounds like fun, though. So I signed up my daughter for Arboretum camp, where they pretend to go camping: pitch a tent, roast marshmellows, go fishing...the works! I figured she shouldn't miss out just because we're so lame. :) Maybe someday, she'll be a camper!

You should go...

Denise — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 16:32:42 -0500

Drive into Tennessee or NC and go camping in the mountains - it would be a good way to get chickadee away from that pool that is probably screaming her name right now.

It's much cooler to camp in the mountains in summer. Unfortunately, the campsites are probably all booked.

~Denise
BlogHer Community Manager

Flamingo House Happenings

Let's go camping... with the kids

Mir Kamin — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 16:03:46 -0500

Are you ready for this year's Great American Backyard Campout? It's this Saturday, June 28th, 2008. Whether you've camped before or are just thinking about starting, one thing's for certain: Starting a family does not mean stopping camping.

Well, let me clarify that: It doesn't mean an end to camping for most people.

I am fully willing to own up to not being a Camping Person. Oh, I want to be a camping person, I do, but I'm not someone who grew up camping. And so when I married an experienced camper, my mind filled up with visions of all the fun family camping trips we would have together. It would be awesome! And magical! And no one told me that only people with air-conditioned tents go camping in Georgia in August. Ahem. So, uh, our first camping foray was not exactly a rousing success. I'm hopeful about the future, though.

Fortunately, there are lots of families across the 'net making family camping look good. Pay no attention to my complaining children....

Want to live vicariously through someone else's trip?

Beth at Seeker's Soul compares the camping highs and lows in the form of mountains of laundry vs. the mountaintop experience.
At life in the land of maeve a recent family camping trip is recounted in its full good, bad and ugly detail -- including having to abandon their beach campsite for a hotel due to 55 mph winds! (And it still sounds like a great trip; go figure.)

Looking for some camping perks?

Kelly at the Adopting from Foster Care Blog extols the virtues of the family camping trip while pointing out that foster families in Washington state can camp for free.
Melissa at MySprout Outdoors fills us in on REI's Passport to Adventure program, a great way to get your kids excited about camping and other outdoor activities.

Need some specific tips and suggestions to make it a successful trip with the kids?

This is an oldie-but-goodie: subarctic mama wrote a great set of rules on camping with kids.
Andrea at Peekaboo Picks has braved the campground with her kids and lived to tell the tale.
And leave it to Asha at Parent Hacks to have the skinny on both car and backpacking camping with kids in tow.

As for me, I doubt I'll be making it out to a campsite this weekend. (Full disclosure: As I write this, is it 5:00 p.m. and 96 degrees outside here, so, um, I'll just hang out here in the air-conditioned house for now if it's all the same to you.) But I am inspired to get out there with the kids again... once the weather cools off a little!

BlogHer Contributing Editor Mir also blogs about issues parental and otherwise at Woulda Coulda Shoulda, and about the joys of mindful retail therapy at Want Not.