To go camping with a non sleeping baby?

[onemumtwocountries]

DS is not a great sleeper. We had a good month or so just before our holiday so we decided to go for it. He slept amazingly the first night, but had a couple of bad nights next. The campsite is not too busy but we have people quite close to us. DS is loud in the night. Are we being unreasonable, inconsiderate twats or is it just one of those things? We're moving quite often so no one will be too affected, but I still feel bad about it.

We went camping last summer and were pitched next door to a family with a non-sleeping baby. It was extremely annoying...

Ps I am v v jealous of your holiday. Retreating to the outer hebrides to wild camp sounds divine - even with a non sleeper! Enjoy

And yes, I get that you don't expect to have the best night's sleep camping but I think it is generally reasonable to expect that from 11/12 - 6/7 people peace prevails.

I think everyone is being very harsh on the op. I have had many many nights disturbed by other campers and none of them have been babies!! Camping is never quiet, if you don't like some level of noise then don't camp!!

However good a baby is there will always be odd nights with issues. My two year old generally sleeps through, we are camping this summer, if she ends up ill or teething, she will cry, we will do what we can and try not to disturb anyone but you can't expect people with young children to stop going on holiday (ultimately you could say the same about hotel rooms! We had a much looked forward to one night away in an exclusive hotel without DD, only to be kept awake half the night by the couple next door!!)

My DD slept her best on camping holidays. We didn't know if it was the fresh air or all being squashed in together, but we were almost always guaranteed the best nights sleep when camping, and she was a pretty rubbish sleeper at home. You never know!

I love camping but listening to other peoples crying kids is really annoying. To overcome this I just book a pitch in the adults only section so I won't be woken up by it. Now to drown out peoples snoring....

meh, I wouldn't worry. It's one of the risks you take when camping - you might have chatterboxes next door, a barking dog, a group who stay up all night, those who play music, or a crying baby.

We camp in pop up tents. I HATE anything other than quiet talking, so, music, drunken people, dogs barking. Of which I heard ALL on our last but one trip. I almost zipped open my door and shouted 'SHUT THE FUCK UP' Having said that, if its windy and you are quite a distance from your nearest unit, the sound doesnt carry. These nobs were right behind me. I heard every word of how his boss was pissing him off at work and her suggestions on what to say on Monday morning!

Personally I don't think it is any worse than going camping if you snore. We went with DBIL once, his tent was right next to ours and it was like sleeping next to a chainsaw.

That is why ear plugs are an essential part of any camping kit.

Why on earth would you take an 11 month old camping ?! You should have left the baby with one of your family members or not have gone camping at all. Imagine the stress you have caused the poor thing being dragged around foreign surroundings.

There's a lot of precious people on this thread.

It's just a baby crying. Babies do that. All adults did it when they were babies. If you don't want to hear children at night, then go to an adult only holiday venue.

Adults are noisy when camping too, as they all stay up late drinking and making fires. They never have to apologise for that.

God, and people who take their dogs with them - dog barking is a far more annoying noise.

@MrHussain Camping is great for babies. Mine loves it, and especially now he's coming up to a year he's really interested in going for walks in the woods and likes being in the backpack when we climbed mountains. I think it's good for children to grow up appreciating the outdoors and to grow up thinking physically activity is normal.

Enjoy your holiday OP.

SpecialStains I see you're defensive because you've now realised just how much people have hated you continually taking your screaming kid camping 😂

My child isn't a great sleeper but doesn't cry because we co sleep and I just shove a boob in his mouth. I have thankfully been blessed with an easy baby. Plus we stick to child friendly campsites.

However, since having had my child I've realised how child unfriendly the UK is in general. It always seems to me that people are so keen to exclude small children, that they forget this generally excludes mothers of small children, which is indirect sexism.

I put up with the sounds of drunk people, dogs, people snoring, engines revving, getting up in the night etc, they can put up with a small amount of noise from an infant in return. The sad thing is people are just so intolerant.

I'm going camping with a group of friends and our young kids this summer. It will be awesome.

To be honest it wouldn't bother me that much. Campsites are just noisy places, I don't think anyone can really expect to have silence for the whole night.

Last time we camped a man in the next tent snored loudly all night. I'd much rather hear a baby crying for a little while than that!

We had this situation a few years back when we camped. Family next door had a non sleeper plus a young child who was over excited and it was hell. Ruined our holiday. The baby screamed throughout the night and the child wanted to watch TV and whined loudly and cried at 2am because she wasn't allowed. The dad told us all jolly that the baby "won't sleep at all". It was dreadful.

SpecialStains -but when it is a baby crying ALL night, every night it's pretty shit for everyone else trying to get some sleep. Yes, campsites are noisy, but nothing grates like constant crying for hour on end.

Op said a couple of bad nights, not that the baby continuously cried all night.

Also, the advantage of camping is that it's easy to change location - which DH and I have done in the past due to being too near a stag do at the campsite. We simply packed up the next day and left - not sure why anyone would deliberately let us ruin their holiday. We also moved once because the owner of the site was a bit creepy. It's not a big deal.

All these martyrs on this thread letting it ruin their entire holiday!

The UK is so child unfriendly because British parebts think its only there job to discipline naughty children where as in Europe they can tell misbehaving children off without parents going ape shit about there little snowflakes been told there behaviour is not on.

Its really unfair on other people to take a known none sleeper on a camping holiday we had one last time we went that literally cried 6 hours stright from midnight to 6am everynight apprantly it was a day time only sleeper and after the camp moved as many as they could they were asked to leave

Specialstrain i am assuming you go camping out of season or less popular places as if you left a campsite in cornwall you are unlikely to get another one as they would all be booked up....

We were camping in August -not one campsite space available, no option to move sites -literally whole island was booked out. I'd just paid over £500 for that holiday -like fuck was I packing up and going home after 3 days because of a sleepless night. Hardly being a martyr to actually want to ENJOY the holiday I had booked and paid for. I was also referring to my holiday where the baby cried continuously all night every night, not the op. I'm actually surprised the parents of the screamer didn't opt to go home as it must of been utterly miserable for them and must have felt pretty shit knowing a whole section of campsite were wide awake and pissed off. Nobody was horrible to them or started an arguement over it as clearly it wasn't a situation the parents would have chosen, but it did make my family absolutely knackered and put a dampener on the break as the kids were grouchy and tired during the day.

Please do think of your fellow campers. Some people are just depserate for a bit of peace and quiet in the countryside and, like a PP said, it might be someone's only holiday which would be ruined through lack of sleep.

I would avoid it if the non sleeping is known issue, but if you are already away, then I would wild camp as much as you can. I'm sure you could arrange with a campsite to pay for a pitch to use in the daytime so you can use the facilities and have a base, but actually overnight a bit further away. That is what is great about Scotland! In the crowded south the crying would drive people absolutely nuts.

If you use a site then pick a family friendly site and ask for a quiet corner.

Also, if your baby does cry, just acknowledging the noise to your neighoburs goes a long way to keeping the peace and keeping people on your side. People do know that babies cry but it makes it worse if the parents just look like they are ignoring it then people can assume the parents don't care and it gets people's backs up. Most people will commiserate with you if you show that you also care about their wellbeing.

For what its worth I'm against people being noisy for any reason between 11am and 7am so we try to find sites that are known for enforcing the quiet rules and who don't allow/ encourage loud drunk groups, and even better if they have a quiet hour from 10pm before no noise from 11pm. Bliss :) you can still have campfires and be sociable without ruining the peace for others. I love camping :)

Thanks everyone. I really appreciate your opinions. As it happens, that night was the only night we bothered anyone - we went off into the wilderness for 3 nights and have only just come back into mainland Scotland. Baby slept very well for the main part, but even if he hadn't there was absolutely no one around.

MrHussain You're entitled to your opinion but DS (and children in general I think) love camping, being out and about and exploring, it's one of the best parts of childhood!

Hope you had a good time.
Totally with you on taking DC off all ages camping- sometimes feel this is one of best things I have done for mine.

Did you go to Hebrides? Anything to share about camper van off sites camping up there?

Glad you had a good time OP. We've taken ours in a tent from 6 months old. They never woke at night thank god, but I would decamp to the car and go for a drive or a walk if they woke early and did that happy screeching.