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Quote: Originally posted by FriendOfOwls on 04/9/2013

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Valk scot - as ever - has posted wisely. Val you should write camping books!

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Sorry you had a hard time. Camping is definitely not an easy holiday option at the best of times - and especially not with kids and/ or health issues! Some excellent tips given, as usual... but at the end of the day you are the one that has to decide if you can (or still want to!) make it work for you. I hope you can.

Are your kids better behaved and less demanding at home (I know all kids are demaing but there are levels)? How old are they? Any specific issues we can help out with - for example, they didn't sleep or were "bored" etc?

Quote: Originally posted by kim81 on 04/9/2013

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I always have a snack box (sausage rolls, cereal bars, crisps, biscuits, juice etc) to hand, so when im putting the tent up and the children are moaning their hungry i can just hand it to them.

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Quote: Originally posted by chappers2341 on 02/9/2013

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As was said do you have friends who camp, maybe  some shorter communal trips would educate the rest of your tribe to life under canvas.

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Quote: Originally posted by fran1000 on 05/9/2013

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The combination of a long trip, low blood sugar and trying to put up a tent is guaranteed to lead to a row and a massive sulk imo.

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Good point there about the long trip. I read a lot here about driving four or five hours each way just for a two night weekend stay ...why? If you're just going for the fun of camping, it doesn't really matter if the campsite is five hours or five minutes away from your house and five minutes certainly cuts out the grumpy travelling section.

 Of course it depends where you live, I know the south is very crowded compared to up here but it's worth investigating all the campsites within an hour's drive, say. We've got dozens in some very scenic areas so I'm spoiled for choice but one of our favourite stops when the kids were smaller was literally ten minutes away on the other side of town. It meant the kids could still attend any parties or clubs or sports events over the weekend, have their or our friends visit on site for the day or evening BBQ and I could pop home to feed the cats or pick up forgotten things. And packing is a doddle, have to say, we could take both cars without a shred of guilt! Actually taking two cars opens up a whole new world of entertainment opportunities, OH and Lad often ended up going to some local rugby event while DD and I headed for something more interesting.

But I digress, there are peripheral benefits of camping locally but the main one here is to cut down on fatigue, no? It might initially feel like you're not making as much effort as you "should" but when you find yourself fully set up and sitting down with a cup of tea looking around the site and it's still only early evening you'll wonder why you've never tried it before.

 

(Next suggestion to make life easier? Take smaller, take less. But that's for another time. ;) )

 

 

I don't mind washing dishes...or should I say sending OH or the kids to wash them...but totally agree otherwise that cooking should be kept to a minimum where possible. I have a rule that I cook only once per day and that's in the evening, if anyone wants a fry up breakfast they can do it themselves. It's surprising how often nobody else can be bothered either! A fry up breakfast makes quite a nice evening meal btw so you don't have to go totally without. But otherwise it's things like cereal, toast, yoghurt and fruit for breakfast. For lunch we have cold meat, cheese, pre pack salads, nice bread etc.

For a two night stop however I'd cook even less...I'd take the first night meal (meatballs and pasta) and for the second night fish and chips would be the usual, with the added bonus of being able to send OH out to get them and no washing up.

On the subject of taking less a one burner cooker of some sort would cope with cups of tea and pasta so no need to take a big cooker, big gas bottle, full kitchen unit, most utensils or even a cooking tent/windbreak set up. I don't take a big table either, we've got a small fold out coffee table that does for glasses and sauce etc and we eat off our knees. I don't take the 3-way fridge for weekends, just a coolbox. I will sometimes take EHU for lights, recharging things and (I'm getting old here) a small heater but at least half the time I don't bother.

Weekends mean tent rather than trailer tent too, I'm not doing a two hour setup on a two night stay! Even the biggest of our three Vango Oregons, the 800, only has five hoops and two people can set it up in 15/20 minutes, if it was just me and the kids I'd take the 400. You don't need anything like as much space on a weekend after all. I don't own such a thing as a tent carpet or footprint btw, my tents all have separate groundsheets and a picnic rug at the door suffices. Incidentally the easiest type of tent to erect is a tunnel with detachable groundsheet, much lighter to handle, much faster to erect. Easier to dry out at home too! I do see the reasoning behind SIG tents but they do seem to need a lot more add-ons like footprint and carpet to protect the SIG and keep it clean. It doesn't matter if you get a loose groundsheet dirty, you just hose it off  when you get home. A riser groundsheet with good storm flap overlap is almost as draft proof as a SIG anyway.

Sims, sleeping bags, pillows, some basic clothes. First aid kit. Tent repair kit. Book, knitting, tablet or whatever. I can get that lot in the boot of the estate car and still be able to see over the top plus I can set the lot up in under an hour, half that if we all pitch in.