Ok, call me a lightweight but I'm dreading this camping thing!

[Amandella]

I made a BIG mistake. On one of our exceedingly rare non-children evenings out with friends last weekend, I had one too many glasses of vino and in a mad moment, agreed to go camping with them at the end of May - somewhere in the New Forest. I am now regretting it BIG TIME.... but I'm not one for backing out and dh is delighted, two dd's aged 4 and 10 are both not sure what to make of it but willing to give it a go. Have managed to get our camping-mad neighbours to lend us a largeish tent (apparently), some blow up mattresses (they said their special ones that don't get freezing??)..., a table/chairs and some cooking stuff. I'll buy some sleeping bags and have read some posts here with useful tips on other suggestions for kit so I guess it's all systems go...HOWEVER, I am absolutely DREADING it.

Firstly, I hate the cold/the wet/outside generally - I'm much more of an indoor person. Secondly, I can't imagine how the kids are going to be kept happy as they are both scared of the dark - almost as much as they are afraid of virtually every bug on this planet.... and my eldest, taking a chip off the old block, is utterly disgusted at the idea that she might have to pee in a bucket or walk across a field to have one in the night. Also, what on earth do you do all day long? Isn't it boring?? My only memories as a child of camping are going with my dad and his friend and "the kids" (sensible mums taking a break in some hotel) whilst we attempted to sleep in a two man tent in the rain, with a cold sausage sandwich and being permanently wet and miserable.

Sorry, I know that those of you reading this are probably the outdoorsy types who love nothing more than living with nature, but to be honest, I'd really appreciate an insight into why this is such a great thing to do so that I can tell my kids - and try to convince myself that we are all going to have a wonderful time!!
Thanks

are the electric fridges better than the electric cool boxes? is there a difference between the 2?

is it worth getting a tent heater or a water heater?

also i just thought of something ... how do you charge your mobile phone?

charge it off your car or get a small solar panel designed for charging phones.. Probably not worth buying tent heater for high summer camping but may be something you want at a later stage if you go early or late in the year. what do you mean by water heater. You can heat water on a gas stove or in a kettle if you have hookup(less safe in a tent due to being easy to knock over, though maybe alright if you have room for a kitchen area and table).

We don't bother with fridges, coolers or heaters. Is a liberation to be away from looking after food. We just buy stuff as we need it or else use things from tins. Milk and butter keep for a day or so depending on the weather. Heaters not needed. Add or remove jumpers and hats as necessary.

Charge a mobile phone in the car.

Heat water on gas stove. Keep any leftover hot water in thermos for next time.

Most food is fine without a fridge. Bread, fruit etc all fine. Keep covered and in shade. Meat's the problem. Buy that as you need it.

we heat milk too and keep in thermos till the evening than can have hot chocolate last thing before bed without faffing around. Those lock and lock tubs are great for keeping stuff fresh.

I am so old that when I was a child most people did not have freezers and some people didn't have fridges. So camping just seems like going back to that to me.

oh right i was thinking i would need one for yoghurts, milk, salad, cheese etc.

just buy small quantities of stuff as you go. lots of sites have small shops.

hmmm always found those shops to be really expensive.

Just think a meal or two at a time. Don't take the whole week's shop with you.

Girl Guide stuff now - put milk in a bucket of water under a tree. Probably cheese the same. Salad OK in a cool place for a few days. Yogurt - don't bother unless it's a planned pudding.

can't not have yoghurts - sometimes ds won't eat all day and that's one thing i can guarentee he will eat if he's having one of those days.

We take a cool box with ice packs- you have one IN the freezer at the camp shop and one in the cool box and swap them over each day or so. We just have a small, good quality cool box- no need to store lots of food in the tent. If we're going for a few weeks we have cereal, dried pasta, rice etc. but other things are bought daily when you are out for the day- we do tent to take picnics most days because we live on a tight budget.

But take your bedding and pillows from home, with some fleecy or flannelette sheets to go on the air bed and some comfy chairs and you should have fun!

But then I'm a bit phobic of hotels!

you can use freezers in the shop? didn't know that!

what are those inflatable pillows like?

i guess it depends where you go. Most places aren't too bad for just milk/cheese, we tend to have a few favourite meals we make and take tinned tomatoes etc to make them, helps that hubbie is vegetarian so none of us bother with meat most of the time. Favourites we have found are Gallo risotto (in a packet-just add water and can add extra veg if wanted really nice), waitrose potato rosti just fry (vacuum packed), we have it with baked beans and cheese and random other things. Pasta and pasta sauce. Veg chilli with tinned tomatoes/ canned beans/onions and spices. Sosmix is also an alternative to meat sausages if you are worried about them going off. Puddings we tend to have tinned pineapple/peaches or fresh fruit. If you have milk you could also make angel delight type puddings. Plus there is always UHT milk which is getting marginally less disgusting than it used to be. We tend to use that for porridge occasionally.

electric hook up a must!see my profile!

have you tried soy yoghurt type things. some of them don't need refrigerating and don't taste that different.

Most camp shops have an ice pack freezer facility- for a small fee. You can ask when you book your site. Some sites will also let you use the freezer for baby food, but that's not an issue for you. you can aslo take tins or packs of rice puddings etc that don't need chilling, if your children like milky puds.
Never had electric hook up, so can't say if that's better.

cheeset what's better about electric hook up?

It's cheating to have hook up if you're in a tent. Discuss.

'what's better about electric hook up?'
are you mad!

Hot water at a flick of a switch, hot drinks galore, none of that waiting round the stove trying to keep the flame from going out from random gusts of wind.

Electric fridge, everything cold and lovely(beer)

Music, dvd players etc

Don't get me wrong, camping is fab but it's magnificant with lecky especially in the morning when you need a cuppa coffee to kick start your day. None of that waiting business.....

I suspect you may just end up taking lots of bulky stuff to plug into the electricity to justify it. If you go on a site with campervans you often see all these people just sitting in their vans watching telly, which is boring enough at home. DH and I like camping a lot and I think it's because we get the peace and quiet to play cards etc. and talk to each other.

i think that's the sort of camper i am cheeset

can you recommend something for hot water?

do you have an electric stove then?

SantaBarbara, Poppycock is what I say to you!

Even with electric hook up, I still use the shared public toilets, showers, sleep under canvas,have to sleep in a straight jacket(I hate those mummy bags), still wake up damp blah blah BUT my lecky makes it more bareable.

We don't have an electric kettle at home either!