Spend Some Quality Family Time – Go Camping

When was the last time you hunkered down to your kid’s level, and spent a quarter of an hour to do something one on one with them, like watch an ant go about its business or gather up the teddy bears and play at having tea? Kids know the difference when parents are doing something just for them, and they’ll remember the moment for a long, long time. Turning off the television and getting back to simpler things is great for spending quality time with your kids, and an even better way to break the circle of daily routine is to throw your things in the car and take your family away for a weekend of camping.

Camping is a simple, natural way of providing this quality time for your children. The fast-paced action of television and the video games that are played for hours at a time are gone, left well behind at home and replaced with the great outdoors, trees and sometimes even a lake or beach. The novelty of having absolute freedom a camping trip provides can often be exhilarating for kids, and more often than not, parents won’t hear much complaint as the camping site and its surroundings are scoped out and explored.

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You’ll be amazed at the change in your kids once the tent is up and you start your camping vacation. Children who couldn’t pick up their own room are now enthusiastically placing their sleeping area every day and complaining heartily when too much sand gets tracked into the tent. Be prepared for another shock when they actively ask you for a dustpan and broom to sweep the dirt out. Even the most common tasks like washing dishes will become something novel and interesting to your children and they’ll probably want to pitch in to learn how people lived in ‘the olden days.’

Another thing that’s amazing about camping is that you’ll find your kids enthusiastic to visit places and scope out attractions. Walks in the woods become amazingly important, and trips to the grocery store a focused affair as kids try to help choose what would be interesting to cook for supper. Your children will also learn new skills as you model practical independence by building a small campfire at night and make hot chocolate before their very eyes with water heated from hot cinders. They’ll be able to discover that not having electrical appliances isn’t the end of the world and that bed hair and no makeup is perfectly acceptable attire.

You may find that your camping trip brings back something that was missing in your family. Once you rediscover quality time and that taking a break from the crazy world we live in only brings you closer to your children, you’ll probably want to live that feeling again and again. Your kids will find that their too-busy parents have come back to life and that there’s more to the world than pressure to perform and schedules of work that leave you feeling tired and worn out. And if you can’t get away from the weekly bustle, a return to nature can easily be done with some short, weekend camping trips.