Family camping

If you’ve ever feared the concept of camping with the kids, we get you. But with forward planning and a sense of adventure, it can be the best kind of camping of them all, says Nick Hallissey.

How to keep the whole gang happy under canvas

Igrew up reading the cartoons of

Peanuts and Calvin and Hobbes, so although my family wasn’t big on camping, I developed a peculiarly American sense of what family camping actually was. It should involve flags and chores and angst and votes. I would have to contend with bears and snakes and maybe even the Great Pumpkin (see ‘ Van Pelt, Linus’).

Thankfully, as I was progressively broadsided by first adulthood and then parenthood, I discovered that camping with my own small team need not be so regimented, or so full of fear. Planning is everything, of course – and thankfully Mrs Hallissey is the finest Planner of Things in the history of planning. But if you’ve done all the prep (or at least been told what to do in the course of it), the actual act of camping with kids can be as simple, as flexible and as laid-back as you could ever wish. Arrive. Put up tent. Release children. Watch the joy.

And it is joy. See the ease with which friendships are forged around the swings or in the woods. Witness the wide-eyed delight at food cooked on a stove. See them rejoice at the idea that bedtime is now a moveable feast. Relish the chance to spend time being a kid with your kids.

And then, when the time comes to take the team off for a walk, observe as they willingly embrace the idea, rather than resisting it as they might at home. They’re already outside; the urge to explore further is utterly

natural, rather than Something Weird.

It’s a social learning curve too. Rosie (8) is a natural friendmaker, barring the occasional spectacular spat. Molly (12) tends to be more cautious about who she strikes up with, but that means she either makes really good friends, or just chills with the grown-ups in her bid to become one as quickly as possible. Either way, it all works.

But this bit’s important – I don’t want to paint us as one of those perfect families for whom every day on a campsite is golden. There’s enough “Isn’t my outdoor family brilliant?” on Facebook.

Truth is, there will be mishaps, tears, tantrums, rain. You’ll forget stuff that would have come in handy. And much as I’d love to say we go digital-free, the iPad is kept in careful reserve withsome pre-downloaded games and films that don’t need Wi-Fi, and just occasionally we’ve been glad of it. I say this so you don’t think you’re a Bad Camper if tempers fray or you have to resort to a device. You’re not. You’re very normal.

But even more importantly, there has never been a camping trip we’ve regretted going on. The joy has always outweighed the hiccups. And returning to tent, moon-chair and mini-cricket after a day’s walk remains one of my favourite experiences of parenthood.

I just asked Mol and Rosie, and they told me it wasn’t bad either.