For many parents, even the thought of camping with their children already stresses them out. In fact, they find it dreadful to have family trips with children. Some kids can really be very hard to control. It is true that camping with our children could be a struggle. We may relentlessly to urge our children to adapt with during camping and enjoy the nature. However, children already appreciate the comfort of urban lifestyle and it could be hard for them to adjust. The fact that they can just go to the nearest eating place when they are hungry is already a big change. The harder we encourage them to enjoy the nature, the more intense their resistance is. They may complain that they don’t have a good time and it is easy for parents to explode emotionally at this time. Parents could find it easy to become grouchy and irritated at this time. In fact, children could be pleased with themselves because they can make a payback by irritating us.
Children and young teenager absolutely detest when they are pulled away from their lifestyle and friends. They may call this a social death, because they can’t even contact their friends through the telephone. No matter how much we tell them that camping is good for them, they won’t believe it. Parents also often wonder why children just can’t accept and enjoy the trip. Mostly, because have become adults for too long and forget it feels to become a young child. Differences in perception could lead to sress, disappointment, frustration and anger.
There are things we should do to make children adapt better with camping lifestyle. At first, we could let them bring electronic gadgets, such as smartphones, tablets, portable gaming devices and MP3 players. Texting could be possible even with very weak signal. However, we should warn them that they shouldn’t ask for more if the battery in their device is depleted. By allowing children to bring their portable gaming devices, the transition towards camping lifestyle could become much easier. At least, parents could have more time to prepare their kids before the battery is depleted. Bringing portable DVD player with integrated display could also be useful or the entire family if it rains for much of the day. If the family really depends on electronic devices, we could carry a high capacity power bank or even a mini generator.
The whole idea is about de-stressing our family and not to make ourselves stressed even more. It may seem rather odd trying to relax ourselves by bringing kids to places that they don’t used to, but it is the job of parents of introducing them new things. After properly adapted, even modern children who have get used to urban lifestyle could start to relax and enjoy themselves. Swimming in the stream and sitting around the campfire cooking the recently caught fishes can be experiences that will never forget for the rest of their lives. Before long, we could see them adding more firewood to the fire and more motivated to catch another fish, instead of playing with their devices.