Anonymous wrote:Camping with toddlers is not hard or weird. Any attentive parent can do it and enjoy it.

It’s actually easier than with older kids in some ways because they aren’t as vocal with their fears about bugs and complaints about the temperature. The whole world is new to them.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What's wrong with you?

It's not my idea of fun, but it's not strange. I wish I was more outdoorsy and enjoyed camping more.

Oh come on, if the kids were eight and ten this would make perfect sense. But one is barely walking and the other is learning ABCs. It's a little strange and it's hard enough to keep crap out of toddler/baby hands in a house. In a freaking park?! No way. I'd be worried about everything - mushrooms, snakes, foot-high water.

This is exactly why MORE people should be taking kids camping. We are so far removed from nature that nature scares us. If we were made nature just as important as math and reading, we would all be better for it.

I have kids these ages and no way in hell I'd want to do this.

But I don't really want to camp in general, so that is probably why.

If someone else is into it, doesn't bother me.

Have taken my kids camping alone a lot. Including when they were that young. They loved it. We also didn't do special food.

How do you define "camping"?
As in a small cabin at jellystone with pool, playground, bounce pillow, family friendly?
Or
tent camping in the middle of nowhere, hunt for your own firewood, etc?

We frequently took three toddlers campung but then again my husband was in the infantry so we have pretty basic needs. Special foods? We did this camping abroad and were grateful for what we had

I take my kids by myself all of the time. We love camping. Started taking them myself when the first was 18mo. Youngest was also ~18mo on first camping trip without DH.

-Mom

Camped there with my 4 year old before husband came out to meet us.That's a tragedy. Camping with little kids is fine.

Though when I think back to my parents taking us with heavy metal cooler, heavy canvas tent, and cloth diapers.... it seems heroic, even though as pp pointed out it was done for thousands of years. Also, current theory is some - not all- of the extreme allergies kids are developing are due to hyper-sanitized lives without exposure to normal things.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't even care that they're girls, would you think a parent and two toddlers camping alone is strange?

The dad took the kids camping by himself because he wanted to give his wife time alone to study for an exam she was taking the next day. It sounds like they were an outdoorsy family, so the kids had probably been camping before.

Story here: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5879979/Father-shot-dead-camping-trip-two-young-daughters.html

Thanks for the link. Not sure why it wasn't included in the original post, but better late than never!

We learned all we needed to about OP’s disapproval when she wrote that a 4 yo is a toddler and a 2 yo “needs special food.”

Not everyone coddles their children, OP.

Just gonna point out that for thousands and thousands of years, parents camped with their kids every night. Still do in some parts of the world.

If you’re blaming the man who was killed for his own death, shame on you. Also keep in mind that people break into houses and kill families, so homes aren’t exactly safe, either. And statistically cars are far more dangerous than camping.

Camping with toddlers is not hard or weird. Any attentive parent can do it and enjoy it.

Anonymous wrote:I don't even care that they're girls, would you think a parent and two toddlers camping alone is strange?

What I find strange is how you latched onto (and felt compelled to post about) the idea of "why camp with young kids?" when the tragedy now in the news -- which you're so obviously referencing-- had absolutely nothing to do with the ages of the kids or the general appropriateness of taking young children camping. Do you somehow think the father would be alive and well if only he'd been camping with two teenaged kids instead? I'm betting not, but can you see how your post smacks of victim-blaming even if you didn't mean it that way?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't even care that they're girls, would you think a parent and two toddlers camping alone is strange?

The dad took the kids camping by himself because he wanted to give his wife time alone to study for an exam she was taking the next day. It sounds like they were an outdoorsy family, so the kids had probably been camping before.

Story here: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5879979/Father-shot-dead-camping-trip-two-young-daughters.html

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a single parent - I have traveled and yes, camped with my daughter many times. I can't say we camped when she was two but not that long after. What am I supposed to do - stay home because I'm single?

No, but if you had two kids and those kids were 2 and 4, do you think you would do tbis? All the power to you if the answer is yes, but I think it would be very hard to do everything needed at a campsite and safely wrangle two little kids.

Also, staying home isn't the only other option. You could always go with other people that would provide some additional adult (or even older kid) hands.

Why not? I mean, obviously it depends on the specific two-year-old and four-year-old, and the specific camping, but in general, why not?