Camping with Kids Chicago IL

January 31, 2010 by Brea · 4 Comments  

My little campers about to say goodnight.

When’s the last time you took little ones camping? I mean little-little ones. My sons, Callum and Quinn are one and two years old respectively. Do you know how demanding the young toddler set can be? Well, we bought a hybrid travel trailer and we found out!

Our first question when packing up for our very first foray in the RVing world was “what on earth will we take to keep them happy”? If you have (or have ever had) little kids, you’re well aware of the Toys-R-Us-Tornado-Effect they have on your home. And the smaller the kids, the bigger their primary colored plastic toys can be. So which of all these “absolutely essential” things make the cut? Our answer was…whatever we can fit into one plastic storage bin. Books, cars, some shape sorters for the baby, stuffed animals, a couple music CDs and movies. Of course this doesn’t take into account the big old double stroller and pack-n-play…but hey, it was a start.

So we packed as best we could, knowing that it would take dozens of trips to actually have our own “system” down. Our stuff was easy. The kitchen supplies, no problem. Bathroom and bedding essentials? Got ‘em. But, which lovey from their cribs will they NEED? How many outfits per kid? 

Were we over thinking things? Totally. We packed what we thought would be needed and set out…we’d done our best.

What a wake-up call. My boys were more interested in the rocks at our campsite than the cars and trucks we packed. They were mesmerized by the bouncing flames in the fire pit and had no need for the stuffed animals. Most of the movies went unwatched, replaced by lots of walks around the campground and time at the playground. I quickly realized I’d packed all those things for me…to ease my worries. Lesson learned…kids don’t need “stuff” to have fun camping. They need parents with a little sense of adventure. 

(However, never underestimate the power of a Sesame...