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Quote: Originally posted by Scubabe on 18/9/2009

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I really don't get the original question... if your OH is going off for a shower, and your toddler is awake, then you need to be awake too. Simples.

Why can't your OH just move all the bedroom pod zips up to the ceiling of the pods, instead of being at toddler-height? I've never met a 6 foot tall toddler :)

If you seriously cannot be awake at the time, then you need to have a chat to your OH about arrangements - perhaps they can wait until you're a little more awake, or perhaps they can switch to an evening shower the night before, to ensure you will definitely be awake to look after your son.

Really truly, the things which could happen to an unsupervised toddler in a tent/on a campsite doesn't bear thinking about, so you really do need to be awake.

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Well, sometimes you're both asleep and toddler wakes up early and makes a stealthy run for it. So while agreed it's not good to be in this situation if it can be avoided, it does happen. So if your toddler can reach the top zips (how??) and they're still too young to really understand what "stay in the tent" means then it's best to have them in the pod with you.

Agree with the poster above that said that at least one parent needs to be sober and fully capable at all times though. It always shocks me how many times you see both mum and dad hammering through the booze after the kids are in bed. Apart from lowered response time/being unable to wake up in an emergency situation, who drives if needed?

When our kids were small, we slept right with them in the pod.  And when they woke, one of us was always awake with them, and fully alert.

The thing is, camping is a dicey business even for an adult.  You never know what new and interesting crisis Fate has in store for you, until it's happened.  Best not give it any chance.  If you have a child too young to understand danger, be actively there for them 24/7.  The consequences of taking your eye off them for that vital moment when calamity sets in, are just too horrible for the parent brain to contemplate.

FoO

I have a nearly 5 year old who is quite grown up for her age and has been on many a camping trip, I'm afraid I wouldnt even contemplate her being up and about without one of us. Even at 5 and her knowing her way around the tent enough to get snacks / drinks unaided, i still put the zips to the bedroom pod, the fly sheet and the main door at the top. Thats three lots of zips she has to reach never mind open before she even gets a waft of the morning air.......

Admittedly her room is next to ours and we often leave the bedroom partition open but she generally only has to wriggle in her bag and one of us is aware of it, we are much more aware of her in the tent than we are at home and i think this is how you have to be. You cant watch a child 24/7 least of all at night if you are on opposite sides of a tent, but really as another member said, the hazards and dangers on a campsite, let alone in or around the tent itself just dont bear thinking about!

There are lots of things you can do from simply moving zips to changing the shower routine......

my simple answer to the poster is sleep in the same pod, i have 3 children and on my own, so they all sleep with me, have been camping since the littlest was 15 months old, kids no mattter how young hve to be given rules, the one rule in my tent/(now van), is if the kids are up they wake me up, i never ever drink at all and haven't since i became a single mum, i would never forgive myself if i was drunk or had one to many and something happend to the kids.

the thought of tying them in or the sorts fill me with horror, 

i go to bed with the kids, and their bedtime routine goes out of the window at camp, so normally we hit the sack at 10pm and wake at 7pm.

Tie a bell to his diaper as that has the fastest swing in an escaping todler. Also, the screw in peg with leash doesn't sound bad to prevent him/her/it to escape in those small laps of attention we all know as parents.

Or fence around the tent with see through mesh to bound of a territory. You can always remove it again if the todler starts barking at other people...

Quote: Originally posted by star1234 on 18/9/2009

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I think there was a really good suggestion on another post a while back about tying a bell to the zip of the tent that way you will (hopefully) wake if you hear the junior escapologist!!

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