Camper: How a Nature-Skittish, Squeamish Girl Grew up and Became a Camping Mama

I'm an unexpected camper. I went camping with my mom and grandparents once, maybe twice (but probably just once) when I was a kid. My grandparents had a big camper that they'd take to a lake and hang out for awhile every summer. My mom thought it would be fun to join them. Boy did she learn her lesson. While she grew up going to the family lake house every weekend in the summer, her daughter did not. And she did not like this idea of camping or putting her feet into a lake where you couldn't see the bottom and what is that touching me!?!?! The fire made me sneeze, I HATE mosquitoes, the bug spray makes me sneeze and itch, and creepy-crawlies are not on my list of favorites either. Needless-to-say, my only takeaway from that camping trip was the obsessive searching for and worrying about spiders that I absolutely knew were sharing my bed with me. I must have been a ball of fun. So no-one was more surprised than me when, 25 or so years later, I found myself suggesting to my husband that we try camping. What? Well, I became a mom of boys. That was part of it. The other part was listening to stories told by my brother-in-law about how his mom would take him and his 4 siblings camping. By herself. He talked about it with such fondness and with such respect for his mom that I decided that I wanted to be that mom. I could do this. I could get over my life-long aversion to all things camping and take my kids camping. By myself. Yeah! It goes deeper than that, though. I want my boys to see their mother as capable. I want them to see me as someone who doesn't back down from a challenge, who does things, tries things, and makes things happen even when they're hard and even when it goes against all that I've ever known to date. I want my boys to have those same, awesome memories of going camping with their mom. And, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em - that's pretty much become my motto since sons 3 and 4 arrived. So, I convinced my husband that this was a good idea - or at least that it wasn't the worst idea in the world and that I was going to do it with or without him so he might as well be on board (he's a saint, that one). We gathered all of the necessary supplies that my friends and the internet told me we needed to have, figured out how to put up the tents, I purchased full-fledged allergy medication and bug spray, found a spot and headed out with another family on a moms and kids trip. And it was awesome. My boys loved it in a totally primal way. They came alive in a way I had never seen them be alive - they were exuberant, wild, filled with life and joy and so very happy. It was a joy to watch them; I knew I had made the right decision and was so glad I had taken that leap. I should mention that my twins were all of about age 2 1/2 at this point so nothing was easy, including camping, but I was determined and they too seemed like different kids. They even loved sleeping in the tent. It really was awesome. We did several mom and kid trips and had a great time. We even convinced other moms and kids to join us and it truly became this whole village type of thing and I loved it. My husband even started to join us after that first year when he kept hearing all of our great tales. We have now caved a bit and, last summer, got a pop-up camper which we're having fun using. We're mostly fall campers and having a pop-up allows us to extend our season and gives us a place to go during inclement weather and still be able to move around. My oldest son, the teenager, still prefers to set up his tent and have his own space which is perfect for him. Some call it cheating, I don't care. We still tent camp sometimes and sometimes I can still convince a mom or two to go camping with us. Somewhere along the way, we became a camping family and I couldn't be happier. Last weekend, we went on our most recent trip with our Spanish Foreign Exchange Student who was with us for the month of July. Camping in the US is different than camping in Europe and it was fun exposing him to how we do it on this side of the pond. He loved his first roasted marshmallows and s'mores declaring them "beautiful!" My favorite moment, however, was when a rain storm hit. We all went into the camper and crowded around the little table. There, we sat playing games for a couple of hours, laughing, talking, and being together in a way that just doesn't seem to happen in our busy, modern lives at home. One of the biggest reasons I love camping is that it allows us to be together as a family in a different way than we are on a daily basis. There's no technology, nothing to distract us, and life gets simple. We go for hikes, we sit around the fire, we play games, toss around the football, we laugh, we talk, and we just "be". It truly is beautiful.