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YO MAMA: What it’s actually like to pack up for camping with a toddler

FILE PHOTO
FILE PHOTO
Image Credit: PEXELS

A Two Week Countdown to Going Camping with Your Toddler

2 weeks before:

You Google pictures of the campground and envision your toddler splashing in the lake, picking up pine cones and climbing over mossy logs.

Ah, the simple life awaits.

In a couple of weeks, you’ll be sitting back in a camp chair enjoying a steaming cup of coffee while your little one collects sticks. You will make amazing family memories, get back to nature and enjoy a relaxing, slow pace. You buy a butterfly net and a kid’s camp chair in preparation.

1 week before:

You realize how much crap you have to pack.

The bikes, the stroller, the travel high chair, the diapers, the wipes, the kiddie floaties — where will you put it all?

You discover how long the drive is. You wonder if there are enough snacks in the world to survive that many hours in a car. You wonder if it’s going to be worth it.

Maybe you should just stay home. Home is where the crib and the gray noise machine and the running water are. Home is where you all sleep well in your respective rooms. But you’ve already booked the site. Everyone is going. 

2 days before:

You do the laundry, go grocery shopping, do more laundry, transfer entire contents of nursery into six large duffle bags, cook a giant lasagna that will feed you for days, do the kid’s meal prep, pack the kid’s plastic cups, cutlery, and bowls, assemble the beach kit (sand toys, sunhat, swim diaper, sunscreen, bug spray, water shoes, hooded towel with the monkey ears on it), collapse the bike buggy, find the first aid kit, check the weather forecast numerous times, wash and pack every blanket in the house because you just never know how cold it will get at night, load the pet stuff, water the plants, and finally pack one meagre bag of your own things as there is very little room left in the car.

Oh, and you do most of this in the small window of time where your toddler is napping.

Day of departure:

Crunch time.

You must not forget the last minute items: the kid’s favourite stuffed animal that he can’t sleep without, the good sandals that actually stay on his feet, the sunhat with the chin strap, your toothbrush, your toothpaste, his toothbrush, his toothpaste.

Pack the stroller after you use it in the morning. Bathe the child. Empty the diaper genie. Take out the trash. Ask husband if it is really necessary to bring his dirt bike. Pack more diapers. Shove extra blankets into every nook and cranny. Load the car, strap in the kid, call in the dogs, cue the carefully curated nursery rhyme playlist…

5 minutes to go…

You touch the kid’s forehead and realize he is running a fever. You cancel the whole trip and stay home instead.

It takes you four days to unload the car.

— Charlotte Helston gave birth to her first child, a rambunctious little boy, in the spring of 2021. Yo Mama is her weekly reflection on the wild, exhilarating, beautiful, messy, awe-inspiring journey of parenthood.

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