To worry so much about safety of camping with young children that I'll probably never do it?!

[principalitygirl]

I'd love to take DS toddler on camping holidays, now and in the future, both 'take your own tent' style and Eurocamp style fixed tents. But I worry so much about safety - mainly being in a deep sleep and someone taking DS from tent...
DH thinks I'm totally over-worrying...
AIBU?

Cory - of course we all take risks for the sake of enjoyment. I like various adrenaline sports - skiing, snowboarding, white water rafting etc - but haven't done them since having kids, mostly due to lack of opportunity but I'd be much more cautious now as while dying would be tragic, breaking something would be massively inconvenient too.
I do try to minimise risks day to day even on holidays. As an example, we booked a private transfer on our last holiday as I wasn't comfortable with DS being on my lap on a coach transfer. Coaches are known to crash from time to time. The extra £70 quid gave us peace of mind. I also took a carbon monoxide monitor from home with us. Very easy to pack and again, sadly, there have been deaths from carbon monoxide poisoning in holiday apartments.

I guess everyone has to find what they're comfortable with. I have been fortunate to have traveled a fair bit and love nature and want DS to enjoy all that but I can't help but worry!

I camped as a child with my DM as a child - spent 2 whole summers camping on Tiree [Outer Hebridees] age 3 and 4 when Mum was working as "cook" on an archaeological dig [she had 4 gas rings for 30 people and no fridge].
She was also a Guide leader, so I camped with the Guides the old fashioned way: wood fire, icelandic tents, elsan pits etc.

As a teenager I camped with my BF, later DH although by then we had a gas cooker and the sites had proper toilets!

I took my own children camping, then caravaning in the UK and Europe.

My DC's now have children of their own, and they camp/caravan too! DD and I first took her DD camping with the Guides for a week when she was 13 months old.
DGD loved it, and has been on every guide camp since!

I have never, never heard of a child coming to harm, so I would say th OP is worrying too much!

I love it! Can you tell? So many happy memories....here is a link
to our favourite place.

You can get an alarm that clips on the zip of a tent that will sound if someone opens it.

But trust me. We've been camping. Deep sleep is impossible because there's always a noisy neighbour or an idiot with a torch or a fidgeting child on your air bed or a DH who needs the toilet or a flock of sheep baa-ing in the next field or a fucking duck that has decided your tent is the ideal place to sit next to and quack at from 4am for four days in a row.

And that's beside the rain, the feeling cold even though you have an arctic grade sleeping bag, the itching from the insect bits and the overwhelming idea that there's something crawling in the tent just above your head that could drop on you at any second.

So get the tent alarm and go. You'll have a great time. DH keeps telling me this and I'm sure he'll be right sooner or later.

I think Eurocamps are pretty horrible. And not cheap. I did howeveer have a fantastic holiday in a tepee in Cornwall. (People probably like Eurocamps for the organised children's activities.)

I'd opt for smaller sites, in an area with beautiful landscape.

I am sure the stats for accidents etc are higher in 'safe' hotels. (Dodgy balconies. Food poisoning etc.)

A smaller site is a good tip.

I just Googled tent alarms and found a suggestion from a festival website - tie a bunch of empty tin cans to the tent zipper - love it!!

Yes, hoping for a deep sleep when camping is probably aspirational!

Ha ha Sarah! We camped once and we woken by local teens coming home from the club shouting drunkenly next to our tent. Just after they finally left the cows in the field next door started mooing....!

I would love to take my children camping but haven't done it yet. Not that I am worried saomeone is going to steal my child but because I am worried my youngest will freak out if we get a spider in the tent! We woul dhave the girls in between us and no-one sleeps deeply in a tent anyway!

Camping is really a safe thing to do, try not to worry so much, just enjoy.

Once my DD has got over her spider phobia we will definitely going.

Sootica - you've just reminded me of another thing to worry about...!

I have camped all my life and my dd started camping at 6 months. I have never heard of anyone being seriously hurt except an accident where a child slipped (could have happened anywhere). Zips moved to the top of the tent if you have a standing hight one will prevent escapees. I think camping as a young child allowed me to be a confident self assured kid. Confidence will give your child the ultimate protection from people who wish to do them harm. Child abusers often try to target vulnerable children who are less likely to seek help and tell the world what's happening to them.

When mine were toddlers that liked to leg it we put jingle type bells on the the zips so if they tried to escape while we were asleep we would hear them. They never did but they liked the bells :)

I've always been more hyper-sensitive to noise though when camping so wake as soon as they do.

Yes, if you have a tent with a high door make sure the zips are at the top.

I think camping is really safe too.

I have camped many many times with my three. As a pp said though do not lock zip s. We managed to set our tent on fire last year thro ugh shear stupidity on our part. As long as you dont do anything stupid like light a gas lamp inside a zipped tent you will be fine. We were very very stupid. Gas canister leaked and ignited.

One of my sons sleepwalks but if we didn't camp we'd never go on holiday.

So we sleep with him next to us and put him as far away from the doors as poss. He's 11 now and we've gone every year since he was a baby - he is fine.

I go camping with my 3 dd and its great fun, we all love it youngest dd sleeps in with me and if she tried to get up I would know about it being on an airbed its like being on a trampoline We do tend to go to smaller sites

This thread has reminded me of why I detest camping.

Hours to put the tent up. The food is impossible to keep cool (in Aus). The flies and bugs are out of control .

Feeling dirty before even leaving the ablution block. Traipsing miles for a piss. Washing dishes is a royal pain in the arse.

The worst is when it rains torrentially - everything gets damp and nobody can sleep because of the noise hammering down on the canvas.

Most definitely my kind of living hell.

You might as well worry about alien abduction. Spiders on the other hand...

I get worried about them escaping while I sleep.. or there being a fire and the tent catching. so yanbu

Many of us camp mostly because it is cheap and more enjoyable than reading on the toilet in a hotel room because your children are asleep in the bedroom. After a hearty/outdoorsy Guide camp aged 13 I swore I would never camp again, and came back to it only when much older, camping almost by mistake (shades of Withnail) in France, and finding that the campsite had spotless showers, washing machines, a solar-heated swimming pool and a lot of parents relaxing in deck chairs with large glasses of wine on the go. As well as great weather, of course. Since then I have camped in the UK and found it all blessedly free of very much 'nature' beyond a general impression of space and fresh air.

Having said all that, if you can afford an alternative and wouldn't enjoy it, don't go. It's not compulsory. But it's worth reviewing when your children are slightly older - the protective instinct does reduce in proportion with your children's ages, or should do.