Sleeping arrangments and a few other questions

[bobkate]

We've just gone and bought ourselves the Kalahari 8 from Go Outdoors. We initially thought it was great as we could have the bedroom one end and our two DDs could have the other end. Either in together or they could have half each. They are only 2 and almost 5 though. It's been playing on my mind that we're not going to be in the same sleeping compartment as the girls. Am I being a bit overly cautious worrying about that? What do you all do if you have a similar tent layout? Or what are your thoughts on this?

Also - wondering if there's such thing as bedroom carpets? The living room bit will be nice under foot but thinking it'd be nice if the bedroom was the same.

Lastly ( for now! ) those of you who take duvets, do you just roll them up and put them in bags? I have in my head the idea that we could put them in vacuum pack bags and suck the air out so they take up less space in the car, but then on the way home we wouldn't be able to do that as what would we suck the air out with? Hmmm am I missing something obvious here?

We sleep in the same room as our boys (6 and 4) mainly because if we sleep between them they don't wake up as early. If they were in a room together as soon as one of them woke they would poke the other awake.

We have sleeping bags but when we last took duvets we just stuffed them In the car.

Okay - scrap bedroom carpet question! Found a useful link on the ukcampsite to these carpets which apparently fit the bedrooms pretty well. Paypal being emptied rapidly tonight

Why dont one of you sleep in with each of the girls then once theyre older they can share?

You can get carpets but am on phone so not able to link atm
.

So if they didn't wake each other up yellowdinosaur then would you sleep in separate pods, or do you think you'd still be inclined to sleep together?

Thanks gnocchininedoors.... yep - maybe that's the way forward until they're a little older.

They'll be in a separate pod once they can be relied upon not to wake each other and us up too early. Our tent is a different layout though with all the bedrooms at one end. Think I'd still be happy in your set up though

Our nearly 3 and nearly six year old sleep in a separate pod at the other end of the tent - 2 and a bit metres away with two thin sheets of nylon (also known as pod doors) between us. We're all in sleeping bags so rustling would alert us even if they didn't shout pretty much as soon as they open their eyes. Works for us and as we let them stay up late when we're camping, they usually wake up at least half an hour after us, giving me a glorious bit of early morning me time to drink my tea and stare into the distance.

Thanks yellowdinosaur and cheerup... My initial thinking was that it was fine, then I had a wobble after friends said they'd be all sleeping together! I guess we'll see what we feel like when we get there. First time camping jitters I reckon

We bought a tent with a large bedroom at one end for this reason. But DS is an only child so no sibling to share with.

If your DC are on their own at one end you could make sure the zip to their pod is closed out of their reach so they can't escape.

Blankets/picnic blankets make good makeshift bedroom carpets, they're good for insulation under your airbeds too.

We have a battery operated airbed pump that deflates vacuum bags. We put our duvet and pillows in these and they pack down very small.

You can get roll bags, that have one way vents in them. Mine you can either vacuum or roll to get the air out. They work pretty well - so far. Whether they always help with car packing I'm not sure. You wind up with a smaller package, but it can be an awkward shape and rock hard, so less of that 'squish into every air pocket' approach you'd usually take with a duvet.

Thanks quenelle and dumdedah*. Off to see what type of pump we have and also to google roll bags Get your point though about ending up with a rock hard duvet instead of squidged into little spaces one. Packing the car up will be an interesting experience!

Sorry dumdedah

fyi pack-mate are the ones I have.

We sleep one adult and one child in each pod. Saves me worrying about them, them waking each other and safe incase we should need to leave rent quickly.

Trust me you will find that the zipper is so loud that nobody would be able to come or go without waking the entire campsite I know cos i wee in the night and wake everyone up.

quenelle where did you get the pump that deflates?Does it deflate the airbeds too?

Thanks dumdedah and also lisa123 I see they sell in homebase..I can see a trip in order tomorrow

WE camp with our 5 dc and they sleep in separate rooms to us. They share the 2 youngest together, the middle 2 together, the oldest in her own room and us in our room. Sleeping bags help them to not disturn one another and as a pp said the smallest 2 we zip their zip at the top so they cannot reach it themselves

Thanks elvisaintdead - wow five DCs...you must be a pro at packing light and packing well

I borrowed it from my dad ledkr. Not sure what make his is but it's like this Coleman one. It would deflate airbeds, yes, although we didn't use it for that, we used the roll and kneel on technique.

When we tented with young ones we always had one parent, one child in each 'room'. So much quicker and easier to deal with any squealing in the night. No struggling out of sleeping bags, unzipping numerous zips etc. Not very romantic I know but so sweet to wake up to a good snuggle in the morning, Helped them sleep longer in the morning too. Also helped me sleep better cos I could snuggle up to my youngest and not worry about her being cold.

We have a four and three year old. I sleep with them in large bedroom and dh has small room. Hoping kids will move into small room next year. Ds managed to get out if tent in middle if night last year. We were in a bell tent type thing, and I didn't hear him til he was crying outside. He was only just two at the time.