Tips for Camping with Kids

This past weekend, Shawn and I embarked on a planned camping trip with Xavier and Aubrey. We haven't camped since Xavier was born, and since he enjoys sleeping in a tent in the backyard so much, why not try a full-fledged trip? After purchasing a roof rack and cargo box for the top of our car (because Shawn insisted Luna needed to come) and filling it to the brim (the car, the cargo carrier, and any possible open space available), we were off for a 4-night stay at the Indiana Dunes National Park. Shawn and I had been there once before, back when feeding a dog twice a day was the most responsible thing we had to do. After braving the heat, a few storms, and coming home a night early, here's what I have learned:

1. Don't camp with kids. If you must, at least wait until the kids can actually HELP do things and entertain themselves. Trying to jump on the air mattress while you inflate it, or asking you 50 times in a row if they can have chocolate milk while you try to put a tent up is not my idea of help. Or entertainment, for that matter.

On the same note, you will also want to wait until the child can actually stand on his or her own and sleeps through night before undertaking a camping adventure. Aubrey is incapable of doing either of these things at this point (I am a little bitter about not sleeping through the night, but I digress), so she was not very helpful, either. And crying in a full, quiet campground at 3 a.m. with nothing more than the nylon sheath of a tent as a sound barrier is not what I call "entertaining onself".

2. Don't try to have lunch at the beach. The only exception to this rule is if you really do LIKE sand IN your sandwich. Aubrey apparently fits this criteria. ALthough she isn't chomping on sandwiches yet, she was trying to eat sand by the fist fulls. She was the only one, though. It seems like it would be so serene...putting together layers of a sandwich under the shade of a beach umbrella, while watching the waves roll in, but trust me...unless "gritty" is a condiment you love, go back to your car or the picnic tables to eat.

3. If you still feel you need to bring young kids, be sure you are not camping in a remote area where there are no alternative activities available. Since it rained most of Saturday, we took advantage of the nearby McDonald's Play Place for Xavier. Yes, you will be muttering about how you drove 2 1/2 hours for a Mickey D's, but it isn't as if you can lounge around and read or play cards with a 3 year old in the tent during a rainstorm for more than 2.5 minutes.

4. Since you will hopefully heed my warning about camping with civilization nearby, then you can wait to buy your food when you arrive at your destination and unload everything. I would like to let the record show that I suggested that we wait to buy the food once we arrived, while Mr. Eagle Scout insisted that there would only be an overpriced mini-mart nearby. 10 minutes away??? A Meijer. The same place we had bought (and had to pack) all of our food just the very night before. Has he not yet learned that I am always right????

Those are just a few tips to help (or maybe hinder) your plans to camp with small children. Even Shawn, who has gone hiking for days while carrying a large pack, slept on the ground with no tent, survived a week lost in the woods with nothing but wild berries to eat (ok, I made that up) agreed that our camping with small children should be limited to cabins, where there are actual beds, electricity, and more than a glorified parachute as shelter. Tent camping will be limited to our backyard, and that will only involve Shawn and Xavier. No way can I, being of sound mind, sleep outside on the ground with my comfy, bug-free bed a mere 20 feet away.