Do you use the living space in your tent for living in?

[Blu]

We don't. If it's pouring with rain we go to a cafe to eat, or go somewhere indoors for an outing. But when the weather is fine we sit outside, even wearing 4 layers of fleece, round the fire until it is time for bed. We never set up the table inside the tent. We drag stuff in at night to store it, but that's it. I suppose if we were on an extended wet camping week we would put the table in the tent and make sandwiches and read and stuff. I wouldn't cook in the tent.
What do you do in the living area?

We have a mini disco with the earwig family

Only when it's raining.

We are like you, we sit out front in all weathers,until we go to bed. When it's raining we sit inside with the table but it gets a bit cosy with all the furniture.

Mostly our living area is storage and a corridor. The dses will play in the bedrooms if they are not out and about and me and dh sit outside, me with blankets and thermals and all sorts. I love sitting outside, hate being stuck in the tent, even though it is huge!

I won't cook in the tent....ever.

the dd's use it more than us - they spread the Sylvanians out and create havoc with them underfoot.
if it's v cold at Easter for eg then we sit inside in the evening sometimes - but mostly it's used as storage space - hence the new tent with a mahoosive porch and less inside space!

I never cook in it, but do use it.

Eating morning porridge in the morning in peace (close the tent up, with all the meshes open) or playing cards and drinking wine in horrific thunderstorms both spring to mind.

And yes lots of storage.

• meant to say in peace from marauding wasps

Do use it to sit in in the evenings when it's too cold or insecty to sit out comfortably but we keep all the curtains wide open so a lot of daylight gets in and you don't feel too shut in. Eat in there if the weather is bad, although usually on a picnic blanket rather than bring the table in. Don't cook in there.

Would never cook in it, but last year when it pissed down constantly all the way through one weekend, we did spend some time inside on the moon chairs, drinking gin tea and reading while DD played with her toy animals. We have a Bell tent and I have throws (which double as blankets) over the airbeds, so during the day the beds get pushed to the side to look like low sofas and the whole tent is 'living space'.

Now I've got the mahoosive big bed this may well change...

We do. We snug up in it real nice when its cold or raining.

We stay outside unless it's pouring. Then we snuggle inside and play cards/ listen to the radio.

Yes, cook in it, eat in it, play cards, read in it.

Same as you Blu.

Not big enough for the table anyway.

The dds do colouring in there, or fiddling about with small plastic animals, but apart from that we use it to get dressed/undressed in and that's it.

I am always curious about the families with massive tents, and as soon as dusk falls, the zips all get done up, they have huge lanterns inside and they sit in as if it was the front room at home.

I have one of those clip on tiny lights for readong and just sit out.

But our tent only has a modest porch area.

I just find it too cold to sit out in the evening.

I don't cook in it. We eat in the porch bit and use the living space for toys etc (both DCs under 4) in the bad weather. We sat inside it in the evening last year as well with a lantern and books but that's because it was pouring with rain with gale force winds for the whole holiday. Yay.

We're that family I'm afraid. In our defence we've only started doing it since going with DS. He is only 2.8yo and will keep buggering off if not coralled. This is ok on traffic free campsites where he can't get far but all except one of the sites we've taken him to so far had roads going quite close by the tent, or the cars drove straight across the grass in front of us at speed. By evening we've had enough and want to sit on our arses and drink wine together and chat.

We don't have much stuff in the living area, we use the spare(!) bedroom for storage. Last time we took the big tent DS was able to sprawl on the carpet and play with his train set.

I have high hopes that the site we're staying at in France this summer will be toddler friendly and we can spend our evenings in front of the tent quaffing local plonk admiring the view.

That makes sense, Quenelle.

Yea, it always makes me chuckle when you see families all zipped in the tent and the shadows of them all sat round in a circle. Our lights are rubbish so we would not even be able to see each other but I don't see the fun in that anyway.

I would get really claustrophobic, not to mention bored with only dh to look at. The best bit about camping is the people watching!

Varies with us, the DCs tend to stay up much later camping than at home, and we go much earlier, so we tend to stay out if it is light and there are other children still around for playing, but once it's got dark the DCs want to go inside and either play or go to sleep and we go with them. Depends if it's warm, whether there's a campfire etc, have been driven indoors by midges on more than one occasion. I quite like all being zipped up together playing games or reading.

We're the same as Quenelle really. We bought a huge tent so we could have plenty of space inside for the DCs to play since they're both preschoolers so we found that we needed indoor space since it's difficult to keep them out all the time. When the weather was good, we'd put DS to sleep then DD would bumble around outside with us. In bad weather, we'd just snuggle up inside and play with trains or read endless books.

Nope - same as you , we sit out all night (Or until we run out of wood for the fire) If it rains we sit under the events shelter!

Then again, we seem incapable of camping unless there are about 40 of us in total!

I was wondering about this so thanks for starting the thread.

All the advice for tents seems to be "go as big as you can", and yet we borrowed a 4 man vis à vis last summer and it was fine, despite the rain.

WE lay on our beds to read and the DS and their cousin played cards and coloured in the middle bit (despite the drips through the seams after 6 days of constant rain.)

Otherwise we went out. On the worst day we did eat chips from the van in our tent, all 6 of us, it was a bit of a squish and we sat on the floor.

Still umming and ahhing about which tent to get for this summer though - I think somewhere to cook would be nice (but wouldn't do it in the tent).

Possibly a porch to store stuff in (all of ours was in the living area and the boot of the car)...

We use the living area as storage and to sit in if it rains.

We had 48 hours non stop rain at river dart country park in 2010 and were very grateful for the space. It meant that we could stretch out and play monopoly.

Also good for when it's really windy as that plays havoc with playing cards etc.

Our tent ( outwell Florida 6 ) has a built in awning so we can cook outside and sit out there and stay dry too.

We sit in if it's rainy, doing crosswords and quizzes and drinking. The kids have both single bedrooms up, one for sleeping and and one as a playroom.

Our living area ends up as a refuge for all the waifs and strays DD gathers round the campsite. By the evening of day 3 there are always hordes of other people's kids scoffing our biscuits and making inroads into the emergency colouring supplies.

I will be found outside with a good book (pretending to watch DS).

Baileys, what was River Dart Country Park like? (apart from rainy) It's on my list of possibles for this summer.

It was pretty good but expensive. We were in the very bottom field opposite the rope course. It seemed to be nicer than the top fields which were packed in more and sloping.

I suspect that we would have been a lot happier if the weather had been better iykwim. I wouldn't go back there now that we have taken the tent to France and seen the campsites for the same money.