UKH

So after many decades of camping as a two - we're going camping as a four. (two kids under 5)

We have a tent, so that's done. Now I have less than a month to buy everything else we need and frankly, the tent took all the money. So I can't buy everything. What are the essentials for camping as a family?

Is there any really good kit you have that makes life easier?

Any recommendations for stoves, kids sleeping bags, lighting, tables, chairs?

Anything totally random that changed camping for ever? Can't wait.

Thanks!

#1 bung in a rug/blanket to line the kids tent floor.

#2 feed kids frequently (every 1/2 hour)

#3 if the sleeping bags are too long tie the foot end up with a bit of string

#4 take yourself a pillow

#5 as soon as you're happy get them a separate tent

#6 tell them "it might be light and the birds might be singing but that doesn't mean it is time to wake up" (alternatively get a black out tent).

The rest is detail - enjoy

A fire. Poking a fire with a stick, is an essential part of camping for kids. Cooking marshmallows or toast on a stick, Or damper wrapped around a green stick, cooked and covered in jam.

It will probably rain; so wellies, spare clothes, water proofs. Plan some local indoor attractions, even if you have other activities planned, so that you can go somewhere warm, dry and interesting as a plan B.

Glow sticks, or the ones you can make into bracelets etc. Head torch for the kids to use.

Midge repellent.

Wine or beer for when they go to sleep!

Try to keep them occupied, but also warm and dry during the day - once they get cold they will be miserable and so will everyone else.

Hot chocolate - ours love it - makes it an end of the day just before bed ritual and helps them settle

Take their teddy if they want, helps settle them

Hot water bottles are great for them

Somewhere to sit and eat makes life simpler as well

Don't expect much sleep fro them the first night, just go with the flow but try get them down eventually then go to my first point, relax, and then worry about how little sleep you are going to be getting when they get up at 6am

Enjoy the trip.

As others have said, give the kids a torch each (but make sure they switch them off when not in use).  

A folding tables on the larger side of what you can fit in your tent/car.  Makes wet evenings easier for board games/cards etc and also meals, cooking and general organisation more civilised.  We have a ginormous folding trestle table from Amazon, admittedly it was bigger than expected - also doubles as a wallpaper pasting table at home.  For seating we have a few cheap supermarket deckchairs and someone sits on top of the esky box.

Translucent stacking plastic boxes with lids make packing and finding stuff a LOT easier.  I think that was our biggest game changer.  A box for camp cooking stuff, a box for food, a box for kids stuff (games, toys, books, hot water bottles etc), a box for wellies, wet stuff etc.  You can see what's in them without opening them and they can be packed in the boot easily and used as storage in the tent without strewing stuff everywhere (which will probably happen anyway, but the boxes contain it a bit).   Also means the stove, camping cookware etc is always kept in the box in the garage so I don't have to turn the place upside down finding the bits every time.

Got a new lantern the other year - a Black Diamond Moji.  Was much smaller than I expected when it arrived, but it's great, gives out good light, batteries last for ages, light and easy to pack and you can hang it up if necessary.  Much better than the huge, rechargeable one I had before which  ran out of charge too quickly and then broke.

Essential a car with a bigger boot, then a roofbox then a trailer or a van.

Inflating sleeping mats?  My kids  use them as trampolines ( which bursts the seams and I've no idea how to repair?)  then they complain in the morning when they've had a cold lumpy nights sleep on their deflated mat. 

Lighting, we just take  a set of solar-powered fairy lights that we picked up in the end of season sale at the supermarket,

Table, avoid the ones with built in fold out chairs, they will break. We have something  that looks like this https://www.millets.co.uk/tents-camping/147959-4-person-picnic-table.html/3... It takes up a lot of space in the car, the table is a bit rickety but the folding stools are bombproof.  I prefer to book a campsite that has picnic tables for each pitch.

Chairs, the fold out stools that pack up inside the table are all that there is room for in our car, with 3kids there is no longer space for the comfy fold out chairs we used to take before, instead we take sit mats and a picnic blanket with a  waterproof backing to sit on the ground.

Stove and pans, any recommendations for something powerful enough to make porridge for 5 in less than half an hour? 

Thing that changed camping forever. We take enough of  those foam jigsaw tiles they sell for gym/garage flooring to completely cover the footprint of the sleeping compartment, which means no cold spots to roll over onto in the night. We also take a tarpaulin to give us extra dry living space when it rains and shade when it is sunny.

The revolutionary object that most improved our camping experience was a potty.

The kids didn't like weeing in the hedge and we got fed up of escorting the to a distant toilet block in the middle of the night. 

My girls are 3 and 5, so same boat as you. We have:

https://www.kampa.co.uk/accessory/airlock-junior-bed-candyfloss-pink (also in blue) - they can't roll off it. Also take a battery pump (came free with ours), as blowing them up takes forever!

https://www.wiggle.co.uk/petzl-tikkid-headlamp - keep an eye on prices, I got them at £15! They're not too bright that they'll damage their eyes.

https://www.mountainwarehouse.com/camping/sleeping-bags/kids-sleeping-bags/... (other colours available). As Gravy said, tie the end off if a bit long.

Youngest is still in a Vango Wilderness convertible.

Couple of fleece blankets in case it really turns cold at night and be prepared to end up with them in your sleeping bag. Also useful in the case of a wet bed - although I take a spare sleeping bag, too.

Take a thermos flask and fill it with hot water at night time. Then you can mix it with milk to make a nice warm drink quickly if they wake up.

Potty!

Battery powered fairy lights from Robert Dyas post-Xmas sale. Glow sticks also a big winner.

https://www.gooutdoors.co.uk/15906289/gogas-dynasty-ii-multi-fuel-stove-159... - pathetic without a windshield, but easy to use and very stable with large pots.

Usual favourite toys, bedtime books, etc.

Top tip - make sure your wife is warm and dry, too!

Lighting: head torches for all, especially you to read when they are finally asleep. We got a battery powered lamp from decathlon that hangs from the top inside the tent, a red light/night vision setting is very handy. Also a big powerful lamp for outside is useful. 

Brush and pan for cleaning the tent, they will drag in dirt. We got nice folding reclining low level seats, get the kids the same or better than yours or they will want yours.

A rug or 2 with waterproof backing for inside and outside.

All thing covered above but a revelation for me was a double sleeping bag for me and my wife. An absolutely essential thing.

We bought single sleeping bags with LH and RH zips so they can be zipped together into a double.

Also, gas stove with 2 burners and grill where bottle sits away from stove. Also normal sized pots and pans, cooking for 4 now!

Personally I'm a fan of gas lanterns, so long as they can be suspended out of harm's way. Not only do they have a nice soft light, they make a soothing noise and heat the tent up as well!

Potty...with a lid! 

Bucket / potty for night time

Pub near by for evening meal and ice creams

Good indoor option

Double sleeping bag (I take the kids on my own but the children get in with me if they are cold)

Vests, winter pyjamas and onesies for overnight

I may well end up buying a double sleeping bag as this season's camping purchase - we have plenty of bags, but they're all either RH zips or the zips are incompatible.

Unless it was baltic I see a double bag as a form of hell to have to share with my wife as they are just not roomy enough

A windbreaker and a tarp with a couple of poles to make it freestanding are useful.

Maybe going to buy a Uuni portable pizza oven - anyone got one and would recommend it??

Yes. I have one of these. The joys of beans on toast when ‘camping’.

A gas lamp made dark evenings brighter and warmed the tent before bed.

A bucket to piss in.

A chair if no tree stumps available.

Thanks all. Potty, glowsticks and clear plastic boxes added to the essentials list. The rest has been added to 'if there is a next time'...

Agreed! Bloody draughty and if think you’re going to get some nookie after you’ve finally got feral kids to sleep at 11.00 then good luck.

A family

Wellies

Headtorch per person

​​​​​​Outdoor/beach games 

Spare clothing (kids don't understand the need to keep clothes dry) 

Tracksuit to use instead of pj's

My wife and I just take our duvet!  With a sheet over the sleep mat it's almost like being at home (OK nothing like being at home but we can kid ourselves!).  As others have said plastic boxes for storage and a dustpan and brush are essential.  Our tent has a nice living space and we've enjoyed playing board games in it when the weather is dreesh.

That thought has occurred as well, but my wife would want to take the thick winter duvet. And it's HUGE! And I'd MELT!

I did wonder about that - perhaps we won't, then.

The one we have is a really good size and exceptionally comfortable. Its a Vango and from Go Outdoors. I would be without it now. I bought a single of the same version. Just lovely when its dry as they arent technical in any way. 

When camping with the family comfort is the only option.

Alternatively, contraception...

Ps. Have a good camping trip Irk. My kids love camping

While walking along it occurred to me that you might be able to use a heavy duty sewing machine, and resew it together and perhaps seam seal the seams afterwards? Or get somebody who has access to a heavy duty sewing machine to do that, but that might not be cost effective.

Resew it with the seams 'sticking out' as it were.

My only tip is leave the wash kit at home. Let the kids go feral for a weekend. It'll be much less stressful all round and even no teeth brushing for 2 days won't kill them

Dustpan and brush? Can't think of anything worse. 

Games, toy cars and a colouring book for that 5am wake up however........essential. 

I'd maybe clean their teeth, but I enjoyed going feral as a kid when camping. 

to a point, but the devouring of other live things and people always troubled me a bit afterwards

It was the leaving flesh on bones which was the problem IIRC, because it could attract scavengers.

I remember once getting home while pretty young, and being sternly told I needed a bath because I hadn't had one for two weeks. Stealthy cleaning of teeth at communal cold water taps in the dark was something which was encouraged I remember, but I was afraid of the camp showers until a certain age, something about the noise of them I think.

Was at Glenbrittle last week and they had lovely hot showers, unlike the cold shocks administered there this time last year

For luxury lighting the really cheap Clansman radio batteries, 24V 5 Ampere hour rechargeables which are on sale very cheaply, have a charging port which allows the direct insertion of a GU5.3 12v LED spotlight bulb giving about 35-40W worth of incandescent equivalent light and will last many hours.   Can be used as an uplighter or with cable for directed light.   If you don't have a 24V charger they can be charged at about 1A from an old 32v printer PSU through 21W car sidelight bulbs to limit the current, till the terminal voltage comes up to about 30V.  The lamps run quite happily on a higher votage as they have a switching supply internally.

A great camping accessory and can make a tent glow like a chinese lantern

For stoves,  on legs with shelves with two burners and a grill and a decent size gas bottle plus spare. Proper pots and pans.

A bucket for carrying the washing up.

I used too be the gas light, but for practicality it's USB rechargeables all the way now.

Depending where you are a cheap lightweight gazebo is a great shelter for. The sun and light showers

You need to be careful about ventilation with gas lamps too, so a warm fug doesn't turn into a sleepy and then a deathly one.

Some games to occupy their time if it rains.

Re double sleeping bags. I've always just taken two singles and a duvet. The singles go on the bottom to lie on. If you have a bouldering mat, it can make a good mattress as well.

Blanket under the karrimats  - limits kid migration

+1 for potty and boxes with lids, boxes can double as 'climbers bath' plus washing up bowl.

The gadget freak in me got the upper hand and I bought a collapsible washing up bowl with handles like a shopping basket. It's been brilliant for traipsing across to the sinks and folds flat when not in use.