Is Camping Really a Vacation?
While vacationing with children is rarely a walk in the park, it does usually involve meals you don't have to cook, beds you don't have to make, and a flushing toilet in your room (that you don't have to empty). Camping, on the other hand, requires packing up a ridiculous amount of stuff ranging from pop-tarts to pillows, wieners to water, bandages to bread, and everything in between. Camping also requires pitching (and taking down) the tent, cooking breakfast, lunch, and dinner over a fire, and bringing a truckload of sunscreen and bug spray just to ward off sunburns and West Nile disease. Camping is an opportunity for Mom to do everything she normally does on a daily basis without any of the conveniences of home. Sounds like a good deal? Uh, no.
In a word camping is work. If you love sweating, itching, feeling dirty, and using restroom facilities 50 yards away, then perhaps camping is for you. No one has to worry about me taking their spot at the campground anytime soon. My idea of a vacation does not involve camping. Send me to a spa in Arizona, a villa in Tuscany, a cabin on a cruise ship; just don't send me to a tent in the middle of nowhere. I myself will take the continental breakfast, swimming pool, and shower at the Holiday Inn over a camping vacation any day of the week. And maybe, just maybe, if I'm feeling nostalgic for a camping trip I'll even roast a marshmallow with the hairdryer, and then savor it while lying on my clean white sheets, watching the travel channel, waiting for room service. Now that's a vacation.
Published by Lucy Brandon
Lucy Brandon is a former teacher, a freelance writer, and mom to one sweet preschooler. View profile
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29 Comments
Post a Commentmy family and i love yellowstone. if you plan right and everyone pitches in you will have a memorable comfortable experience. the bugs and weather are unpredictable though.
Here's a P.S. to my previous post: If you plan to take all the conveniences of home with you, why bother to go camping? The point is, pitch a tent, leave the T.V. home, live in a swim suit (or jeans if it gets chilly), and live the good life of absolutely no pressures. Otherwise, make reservations at some resort, or hotel and live like a king/queen. I guess it's all just a state of mind. When I want to get away from it all, there is nothing better than up in the mountains with just nature and family. Kids love it and gain a lot of knowledge and self confidence they wouldn't otherwise get by being pampered for a few weeks of over-indulgence.
Okay, those days are long gone... but I for one loved every minute of camping. My hubby, 3 children and I went camping every summer with my sister, brother-in-law and her their 3 children. My hubby did all the cooking. It was so easy to wake up and sling the sleeping bags over a line (hung by hubby), and get on with my day of fun, fun, fun! If there was a rainy day, we took a day trip to some nearby attraction. Gosh, back then, a family of 5 couldn't afford to spend a few weeks at some resort. Getting away from T.V., doing things as simply as possible, and enjoying the outdoors was about as relaxing as you can get. Sorry you don't like it.
Icky! I don't like camping and all it does is remind me of my dishwasher waiting at home for me, my computer and internet, my cable calling me. Last and not least the kids room where I can send them to it! I would have to say I thought camping was so fun until two wild boys came along.
Lover this article...I was into the whole hiking with a 60 lb backpack and sleeping under the stars thing in my Back-To-Nature-Betty days 30 years ago, but now I'm with you honey! Give me a spa over a tent or even a camper for that matter!
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only had one good trip camping as an adult.BEFORE me and ex got married.why because i was ripped and he treated me like a queen!he did everything for me it was romantic,hot just the two of us and a case of beer.Like i said "BEFORE me an MY-EX got married"good article helps me relax and think about gd times.even when they are over.
Love your article- you hit it all right on!
Been there, done that. Great for the 35 and under crowd but you know it's time to stop when you're in so much pain from sleeping on the ground that you can't get up the next day and have to crawl on all fours to the picnic table.
I'm with you, Lucy. Camping isn't for me. The only time I enjoyed myself is when we when in an RV. Now that's more like it.
I am just not a camper. Nice job with the article :-)