Am I going to have to admit my MIL is right?

[acnebride]

My (lovely, lovely) MIL is sending out big worried signals about us camping with ds who will be 2yr7mo at the time. She thinks he could get out of the tent and run off. She's prepared to help us pay for a holiday cottage if we want. Looking through the camping board I do see a few mentions of camping being difficult with this age. DS is very very energetic but quite a sweetie and generally good now about coming back when called (well, screamed at). What do you think?

but in a holiday cottage he could fall down the stairs!!

Sorry...bit flippant...this just feels a bit over-anxious to me...mind you have not camped with a toddler yet (just survived 2 weeks in tent with 10mo...)

he couldn't get out of the tent if you tie the two zip things together, little tip we did camping in Australia so noone could nick things in the night/day etc.

yes i dismissed it initially

but then did wonder if she was right

i haven't been camping for 20 years since walking out of guide camp saying 'never again'

thanks oliveoil

do tent zips have strings [clueless emoticon]? should we take a little suitcase padlock and lock him in???

I would happily do camping with dd3 who is this sort of age, mind you I have 3 older children who will willingly help in the search and retrive missions etc!

I would do it without any qualms at all, but only you know your child and your limitations. You will be spending a fair amount of time setting up the tent - which I would expect to be the danger time. After that, you are going to be concentrating on ds anyway aren't you?

It is unlikely he will run off when you are playing with him etc and I wouldn't expect you to be locking him in the tent when there is something he would rather do elsewhere as you ar on holiday!

Mind you - if she is willing to help with a cottage - and you would prefer that yourselves then why not take to opportunity and save the camping until next year?

that's helpful SM re the danger time. Sounds like dh could put up the tents while I take ds for an icecream [sexist emoticon]

I really want to camp. I said for years I would never camp, then camped in France and loved it and said i would never camp in this country - and behold... but tbh although it is so so kind of my MIL to offer to pay, her priorities are not mine and I would rather choose for ourselves and pay ourselves (this time - ask me again next year when we're pawning ds for food).

When does she think he will get out of the tent and run off??

Daytime, well possibly, but I guess you will be watching him.
Nighttime, you will hear the zip I promise. Also if he has a bedroom to unzip and get out of and the main tent, you will hear him crashing around long before he escapes. Lastly you could 'lock' him in, I would do this by zipping up the doors backwards, eg zip from the ground up (often tents have 2 way zips on the doors) or add a peice of string the the tags of the zip and tie a quick knot.

I tool dd2 when she was 2 and it was fine, the campsites are quite safe if you choose small friendly ones, and there is little/no traffic, dependant on where you go.

BTW my 2 year old loved 'helping' setting up camp. Yes this is a 'crunch' point, but mine helped by unpacking the car!!! completely!!

leave them strapped in the car while you both put up the tent?

With accompanying bribes of sweets/crisps/ice creams etc?

I tied the two zips together as chrunchie says.

Personally I love camping but have a huge tent to set up myself whilst watching all the children..... it can get strained by the time it is done

THe only other tip would be to try to arange it so as you arrive at the camp site around ds's nap time so that you get a chance to at least start teh tent whilst he is asleep in his car seat IYSWIM (although I like the ice-cream idea - I would do anything to get out of doing the tent so being sexist is absolutly fine )

Let the skies darken
Let pigs fly
Let a chocolate teapot safely hold your tea....

let all of these happen before you admit to your MIL that she is right.

LOL feisty I AGREE TOTALLY

Have a cr*p holiday BUT STILL don't admit she may have been right

LOL

i could always stage 'happy' photos - how we laughed when ds pulled the tent down etc - my happy smile after 5 days of watching ds every single moment as dh has still not cottoned on that he moves so fast etc

still want to do it though

[relieved to get home emoticon]

We went camping with friends and a whole little tribe of kids this age - no problem at all. They did run round the tents, but stayed pretty near - and none escaped in the night! In fact I have never heard of that happening. And the biggest problem when putting the tent up is not, IME, them running off, but the fact that they insist on 'helping'.
I think your MIL is having a bit of a wobbly moment.

YOu can borrow my dog peg if you like acnebride
Big metal pole you screw into the ground. YOu can tie DS to it

my db and sil have been several times with dn - now 3 - never been a problem afaik

We go regularly with DS3 who is almost three but more like an eighteen month TBH, and if we need him under control (eg when cooking) we just strap him in the buggy. He certainly has never escaped, neither have my two older boys (one autistic). If you have a door that access their bedroom, cable tie it (we did), making sure you leave any other doors for fire access. If it is the front one, just tie a bell on the zip.

We went camping with ds last summer. He was 18 months then and we did the same as PeachyClair - strapped him in the car or buggy when we needed him out of harm's way.

He enjoyed most aspects of camping but I have to say for us getting him to go to sleep was pretty hard - and he woke up at the crack of dawn (literally!) every morning. Plus he kept falling over and getting tangled up in the guy ropes.

If you have other children to keep an eye on too, it might be a bit hard going.

Give it a go!!

We'll be going next year with an 8 yr old, 6yr old, 3 yr old and a 6months old baby.

Mad??

Me??

probably!!

We bought the tent a few weeks agao so have to use it and TBh I can't wait.

I think it's easier with others, DS1 and DS2 can sit and show him a book in his buggy if he gets upset when we need him in it for a minute. If the boys complain I yell 'TEAMWORK!' very loudly to which DS2 gives in, and ds1 (ASD) looks confused!