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I've always camped pretty light, even with children.  As a single Mum I had a few years of hanging on to a toddler/preschooler with one hand while throwing up a quechua 3 with the other for slightly bigger child to peg.  The the eldest got big enough to hold a pole onto a pin so we upgraded to a 6 man: loads of space for the three of us when it rained but still not too much kit to pack up.

Now we're a blended family of 7 we have a great big tent, but it's still a quick-to-pitch tunnel and we camped lots last year. But then....we went away with friends earlier in the year and I started browsing the equipment forum on here, so we now own a little kitchen stand and lots of comfy chairs, as well as the bits we had before. 

In the course of one shopping trip we have gone from last years 'sun's shining, stick the tent in the car!!' to last weekend's 'it's so much faff for one night, lets just leave it until next year' 

I can see that our 'frequent camper' days are over, and all because we bought a bit more kit.  Boo.

Awwww

We have all the stuff too but for the rest of the year we will be doing non electric basic 1 night camps where we leave all those big luxuries at home. We did it last weekend and actually really enjoyed the simplicity of it. We still took the big tent but left behind some tables, carpet, all electrical items and extra stoves etc. Was a back to basics camp and we still loved it. At this time in the year we cant be bothered with the faff either but will be looking forward to getting it all out again next spring for longer "glamp" type trips where we are all cosied up :))

Quote: Originally posted by Camping nutcase on 11/9/2012

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I have different tents for different lengths of stay. The problem is that I still need to take the sleeping gear, eating/cooking gear, at least two chairs, one for the dog, and one for myself, because he will nick the chair.   Kids can if need be sit on the floor. Because I only have a Micra, I need to two so there is the temptation to shove more stuff in.
Got to admit this year the dreadful weather has put me off the odd pack and go weekend during the school holidays. Impossible during term time as Scout's is of a Friday evening - used to be during the week until we lost the use of the hall, and had to find a different venue.   

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I have a very small car (Ka) so am restricted whether I like it or not!  It does make getting away for just a night or two very easy and I also have all I need for a fortnight's holiday.

Yup - think a small car is the way to go ...