im talking ‘camping’ folks tsk tsk.

Yes camping, what are your views? do you love it? do you hate it? do you even care?

As we are hurtling towards the summer holiday (i know, i know it does still feel like winter BUT lets not go there)..the summer holidays are nearly upon us and that for so many of us means ‘vacation’ time. If you are not stay-cationing..then what are you to do?

Camping is a realistic option for so many of us with children, finances are strung out, we are playing a small fortune for our food and fuel. So what is the cheapest option to actually get some holidays?

Bring out the canvas.

the truth of it is…I am NOT a fan.  Now before you brush my views aside as a non-educated city living prissie. Let me tell you that i have ample qualification to make that claim. HUGE.

Going way back…i cannot actually remember a holiday when i was a kid when we didn’t camp. Every summer holiday saw us packing up and heading to France (usually) with our orange tent. Then im sure i loved it, i can remember loving it…really i can.

So whats changed? One fact. I am now the parent. The sweet justice that is the circle of life biting me in the tush. Now its me that  has to pack for a nuclear event while entertaining small kids and the inevitable wade through the mud to the water tap,  feeding hungry children from one small gas ring, changing nappies with no immediate access to running water, find a pair of clean pants in a pile of clothes that looks like the doorstep of Oxfam, get dressed to go to bed in your entire winter wardrobe and say ‘mind the guy ropes!’ a gazillion times a day.

So i have done A LOT of camping as a kid. AND…we have also camped as a family. I don’t totally hate camping if im honest. I get that the kids love it and the older ones really really do. But i suppose the thing i really hate about it is having small toddler/baby campers along with you just makes it SUCH hard work. They don’t sleep properly..because oh look it gets light so early and really what self respecting toddler is going to sleep when they can hear their family through the PIECE OF FABRIC that we laughingly call their bedroom?

If they are new to walking, like our daughter last year who was an eager beaver 10 month old walker, then camping for them is a bit like  asking them to walk on pebbles, those uneven floors mean they spend so much time tripping, dragging bits of wobbly furniture on top of sleep deprived heads..oh and don’t even get me started on the universal hazard that is GUY ROPES…although have to say they have given us some great ‘you’ve been framed’ falls!.

Last year our youngest pretty much adapted to the sewn in groundsheet deal our tent has which means that there is a couple of inches of fabric that you have to step over to get in and out of the door. She just went with ‘trip and scream’ everytime. in and out. Yeah, so. much. fun.

I have camped when my babies were still feeding too! Oh yes! Try attaching a baby to your boob in the pitch black whilst trying to force them inside your ‘made for a pencil’ sleepingbag so you don’t have to actually lay half naked in an bedroom with a comparable temperature of a fridge. Then there is the ridiculous notion that any campbed/lilo/airbed/mats can EVER offer you a reasonable nights sleep. Its always with a sort of resignation that you get into ‘bed’ when you are camping. If you are on anything filled with air chances are it will be flat by the middle of the night and seriously I have a bed, with a mattress, that i can lie on FOR FREE at home. So paying to go and sleep on the ground seems some sort of happy madness!

But really i think the one thing that makes or breaks camping is the weather. Lets face it, in this country that is rarely going to be on your side. But you gamble on it because you have to and you want to get away.

Last year we all went down to Devon for a week. We arrived on our campsite and started to unpack. The kids wondered off to a little playpark and the campsite was spacious with lots of families. It looked hopeful. Just as we had unloaded loads of stuff from the trailer and were laying out the tent and its poles, it started to rain. Not just a little bit of rain..a lot of rain…the kids came scurrying back to us and with the understandable expectancy that we were going to aide and assist them in getting out of the rain. But the ‘roof over our heads’ was at the moment nothing more than a large empty crisp packet flat on the ground. So we told them to jump in the car and we flung all the bedding and clothing that was slowly getting wet on top of them. Crammed in amongst the duvets and the pillows it wasn’t long before little trouble, screwed up, angry faces started to appear at the windows of the car. Frantically shoving the tent into some form of structure while the rain ran from our faces. I was standing holding the porch up and suddenly i burst into tears and cried out to my OH …”THIS IS OUR TIME OFF! THIS IS WHAT WE WORK ALL YEAR FOR!’ ….he looked at me and said quietly ‘it is rubbish isn’t it’

So you might think that we said ‘NEVER again’ after that experience wouldn’t you…hahahahahahahahhaha

Well essentially we have knocked in on the head until we are no longer dealing with children who are unable to take themselves to the toilet…successfully if you know what i mean. But we are away with some friends in ten days time but my parents have generously offered us their caravan which as we all know is a serious STEP UP..in more ways that just physically! 

and then there is the bank holiday weekend to Wales that we said we would do…but im not really counting that as ‘holiday’ that term is henceforth defined by me as something which neither involves transporting and building your own accomodation!!

So go on, i can hear the backlash of happy campers already. 😉

what do you think?

Im linking this post up today with my fabulous friend Sarah Miles who has bravely started a linky thing (technical term!) over on her blog. You can skip over there and see some others. Just press the button 🙂