Tips needed from lone parent campers :(

[SharonGless]

Hi all,
Did a lot of camping in my youth which was a bloody long time ago. Think canvas tents and wooden tent pegs! I did have a two man tent for festivals and weekends away when I was single but not done any camping since having DC.

After many an argument discussion H will not camp with me for various boring reasons. We were either going to buy a folding camper or a caravan for him to enjoy the outdoor life with me and DC. However after some further discussions he will not be coming for weekends away.

Therefore I need a tent for myself and two DC who are 5 and 3. I obviously need to be able to put it up myself. I gave most of my gear away prior to meeting H so need to start again. Can you either point me in the direction of a thread or is there such thing as a camping spreadsheet?

I have the go outdoors catalogue and they seem to have some good deals on tents but I have no idea where to begin

Just had a thought while contemplating taking my kids without DH. How do you shower?

My dh is a miserable reluctant camper so we are compromising and staying in a pod not much more than we would pay to pitch for the night with ehu

I camp alone with DS(5) - we have a Vango Icarus 500 and I can put it up easily by myself or with his 'help'.

I shower by dragging him in with me and locking him in. Not ideal but it works fine for now. DOn't know how you manage if you have more than 1 DC

Thanks grockle, I have 5!

Eeek! No idea then. Shut the door and hope for the best?

send the two boys (10 & 7) into the male shower, together (we use ccc sites)
take dd with me.
all at the same time. We all go together, we meet at the shower block door after showers.
It takes roughly the same amount of time, we have this thing sorted :)

that's true, but to be able to use them you have to lie that you have a child under 5. And 5yo's don't count, presumably the UNDER bit is in big letters

just have a wash when you get back