I bought a tent in the Boxing Day sales.

[KindergartenKop]

Today I bought a tent and camping stove in the sales! It is my intention to take my 4 and 7 year old sons camping in the summer. Am I mad? Any tips?

Yes, put in the garage and leave it there.

Not mad at all. How easy will it be to put up though? Do have a go before you go away. We broke ours the first time!
Think carefully about sleeping stuff! You need to have the gear to sleep well.
A good trick is get changed to PJs early in the evening then put layers on top so you’re not cold.

Not mad at all we go camping all the time and love it. My youngest was camping at 3 weeks old. You will need a few other things along with a tent though eg sleeping bags, lights. Airbeds are not essential but make it a much nicer experience

'Now is the Winter of our discount tents'...

We did it very cheaply to start off with. But I hate airbeds. And you need decent sleeping bags. Check for reviews before booking sites. We’ve stayed in some lovely places.

You can never have enough warm clothes/ blankets. As long as you're warm, it's lovely waking up to the birds and natural light.

Camping is brilliant, but as pp said, do a test night in the garden before hand, crap to find out the tent is useless when your away. Decent sleeping bags and a head torch pretty essential too.

LOVED camping for years. A bit long in the tooth now, and a bad back doesn't help.
We started everso basic - a leaky army surplus tent and roll mats. We quickly got more and more kit. Air beds when I was pregnant. A blower to blow them up! A trangier is fantastic. Camping chairs make the evenings more comfortable and eating easier. A surface for preparing foods. We have a great fold-up table

I brought a sleeping bag in the sales today, but DD is doing DofE gold later this year. Her first camping trip was at 9 months old (winter baby)

We went camping with (just turned) 5 and 7 year olds this summer. They loved it - they're old enough to entertain for themselves while you sit in camping chairs and drink beer, and they're always eager to "help" with the pitching and cooking. And it was lovely not having to deal with buggies and nappies, as in earlier years! The children also enjoyed some limited extra freedoms/responsibility (e.g. walking to the toilet block on their own, helping me find bricks for the cooking area, etc).

My top tip would probably be to make sure you install the DCs in camping chairs with plenty to occupy them while you pitch the tent and set everything up - that's one time you really don't want their help! Also, do find a big bit of grass and have a go at pitching and taking down the tent before you go, so you're not trying to do it under pressure and watched by all the other campers once you arrive.

Go for it!

ElizabethMainwaring. 🤩🤩🤩

It's a pop up tent and I will definitely try it in the garden before we go away. I was a keen camper as a girl guide but camping with small boys is new to me. The kids both got sleeping bags and head torches from Santa and I bought myself a double sleeping bag so I can stretch out. Ds2 asked if it was so Daddy could join me, I said no, it's just for mummy to luxuriate in. I'm hoping to take the kids away in the summer hoks while Dh is at work so hopefully it's doable on my own.

Hmmm a pop up tent for three? Is it really big enough? And it’ll be easy to pop up (watch for wind) but they’re a bugger to put down!!

@ElizabethMainwaring ^^

Off the floor campbeds. You’re not sleeping on cold air/ground.

It's a 4 man apparently. I figure I can put all the luggage in the car when the beds are out. Kids aren't ginormous either.
I will practice the fold for popping it down!

mackerella one of my very favouritest pictures of my DD is her as a toddler holding Timmy. Our mallet.

Little ones can def help putting the tent up!

Ds1 was specific that he wanted 'one with ropes' as if there are some that don't have ropes! He might be helpful but his brother probably won't!

ElizabethMainwaring

KeepServing Timmy Mallet You must have more biddable children than I do - DD(5.5) is convinced that she knows best about everything and so she doesn't have to listen to my boring suggestions about how to do things

Oh crap. I wouldn’t have let either of my children loose with a mallet!

Have you kept the receipt?

Our mallet's been called Timmy since before 17yr old DD was born! Timmy is one of our camping staples! We never leave the house without him (although we have previously forgotten to pack [on different occasions]

• things to sleep on
• things to sleep under
• clothes other than the ones we were currently wearing (that was a chilly night!)

and (my crowning glory)

• I once forgot to pack the actual tent. (whilst assuring DH that it was IN THE CAR (because, obvs, I'm not an idiot). Although, I clearly am!

Going back to Timmy: When she was tiny, we put all the tent pegs in, and then had her following us round "doing the hammering"

To be fair, when she did her DofE bronze (3 years ago) she was only one of 2 or three in a group of 50 who knew how to pitch a tent.

[in our old garden, we also used to have a forsythia bush which we used to call "Bruce".... I am a fan of naff puns!]