The idea came to me in a flash: Take my 3-year-old camping and write a how-to guide on camping with a little man for Father’s Day.
Perfect, I thought.
Then my wife intervened. “You know camping with a 3-year-old is still camping with a 3-year-old,” she said.
She’s right. Kids ar
e crazy and camping is unpredictable. Mix the two together and you’ve got wackiness in the woods. It might make for a great story, but a cold, wet night with a crying child in the dark isn’t the best experience.
Despite all the things that could go wrong I decided to jump in the deep end and take my son, Charlie, camping last week. Fortunately, with a little help from my wife, we we survived and learned a few things in the process.
1. Plan ahead
A few days before we the trip I told my wife about taking our 3-year-old into the woods for a little father and son bonding time over burning kindling. “What’s your plan?” she asked. “I don’t know. Throw a tent and a couple of sleeping bags in the truck, stop by the store for some hot dogs and marshmallows and hit the road,” I answered.
She looked at me like my hair was on fire. “What are you an idiot?”
I’m not a Boy Scout. Be prepared isn’t my credo. Mine is more “Let’s see what happens,” which often times with a 3-year-old in the woods can lead to new mottos like “How much does that cost?” and “Which way is the ER?”
I have to admit, though, Boy Scouts got it right. If you do anything when taking a mini-person camping it’s prepare. My wife made checklists of her checklists, but it made the trip much better. We had everything we needed and had backup plans for when things, or a certain wee one, went sideways.
Besides the obvious things to prepare — sleeping arrangement, extra clothes, etc. — we found one area of preparation the most useful: Food preparation.
My wife made all of the food before we left and stored it in individual bags or containers. The preparation cut down the time we spent on food and also on the waste that would have littered the campsite. With a kid in tow, that was valuable time saved.
2. Make the kids part of the plan
The day before we left we asked Charlie what, if he could have anything, he wanted to eat on the camping trip. His answer? Oatmeal and carrots.
Ohhhh-kay.
Though we didn’t follow through on that request, we made sure to let Charlie put his fingerprints on the trip. We allowed him to pick out the toys he wanted to take, we allowed him to take his favorite firetruck and we allowed him to choose some of the food items — with a little guidance — we packed.
We also let him help set up camp. He helped dad push the poles through the rings on the tent, he picked where he wanted his sleeping bag to go and laid it out and he helped crumple up the paper and set up the fire.
Allowing him to make choices in the preparation and then set up camp made it less likely he’d want to “ruin” the trip.
3. Make it familiar
Taking a child that has grown up with a roof over his head and a bed under his backside into the woods can be quite a shock. That’s why making it as familiar as possible is the best thing you can do. As I mentioned before we allowed Charlie to bring along his favorite toy, his firetruck. We also went to a familiar place. We’ve taken Charlie on a number of day trips to Deception Pass, so, for him, spending the night there wasn’t as big of a stretch.
One thing we didn’t do that some experts advise is let Charlie sleep in his sleeping bag the night before or even set up the tent in the backyard. This is something parents would have to gauge with their individual children, but we felt Charlie was old enough that he didn’t need the extra familiarity.
4. Don’t go too far
This is a no brainer, but unless you love taking risks or have tremendous faith in your child, don’t go so far afield that coming home during the night isn’t a possibility.
This goes hand-in-hand with another piece of advice: Expect the unexpected. Nothing ever goes according to plan on a camping trip. One thing we knew about Deception Pass is that it’s near Whidbey Island Naval Station. One thing we didn’t know is that the pilots treat the air above the campground as their own personal racetrack long into the night. We were fortunate that Charlie didn’t seem to care about the loud engines, but things could have been bad if he was scared by them.
5. Understand they don’t understand
No matter how much we talked to Charlie about camping and spending the night in the tent, he still asked when we were going home later that night. As any parent knows, when you take a kid out of his normal everyday routine, they get a bit perplexed. Well camping is about as out-of-the-routine as it gets.
Much of the results of not understanding are funny quotes (“You should have brought your microwave, mom.”), but it can also lead to scary thoughts and make you glad you followed tip No. 4. The best advice for helping kids understand is all in the way you react. My impulse is often to react quickly with laughter, but it took the calming influence of mom and some carefully placed words to help Charlie wrap his mind around what was going on.
6. Don’t forget the S’mores
This kind of goes without saying. In fact even my lame preparation had room for marshmallows, chocolate and graham crackers.When you camp with a baby, well, you take your chances on how much fun that will be. Everett Parks and Recreation Department suggests folks take a trial run.
Spend the night camping at Silver Lake and learn basic skills at the Everett Parks and Rec Great American Backyard Campout on June 25.
Park rangers and REI staff will help folks pitch tents, build shelters, learn to start a campfire and cook with a Dutch oven.
After set up and dinner, everyone will gather under the stars for a community campfire experience that includes a family program and the requisite s’mores.
Those who have their own camping gear should bring it along. Families may borrow from a limited supply of tents, sleeping bags and pads. All participants should bring along a small cooler with something to throw on the grill for dinner.
Registration is required. The cost is $15 per five-person family or $5 per individual.
To register, call the Everett Parks and Recreation at 425-257-8300, ext. 2.The last thing dad wants to do after he’s been driving 4 hours is try and play erector set with a pile of canvas. So Coleman came up with the perfect idea for weekend car campers, scout troops, summer campers and, especially, dad. Coleman’s Instant Tent comes with poles that are pre-attached to the tent and promises set up in less than 60 seconds. Also every tent seam is fully taped, so there’s no need for a rain fly. The tent comes in three different sizes: four-man, six and eight. For more information, visit www.coleman.com.
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