10 Lies Your Kids Tell While Camping

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Summertime is SO much fun!  We love being outside as much as possible.  We take our kids on day hikes, overnight hikes, and camping trips.  There is so much fun to be had!  With all the fun, comes the work of putting these trips together, and let’s be honest…kids are exactly ecstatic about the work part. Through all our camping trips, I’ve learned some things about kids and camping.  So I’m going to share with you the 10 lies your kids tell while camping.  Most, if not all of these will be told during any given camping trip…trust me.

10.  “I don’t know how!”  Kids are SO excited about camping.  They are not excited about helping set up the tent, unload the car, or gathering firewood.  They want to explore, run, play…and they suddenly forget how to do ANYTHING but that.

9.  “I know I packed it!”  This phrase will happen shortly after you arrive at your destination and begin setting up.  Your child will undoubtedly be looking for a needed item, binoculars, pocket knife, underwear, every left shoe…and it will be no where to be found.  Without fail, it will be right where they left it, at home.

8.  “I’m not on my phone/ipod/ipad/kindle“  I bring my phone along on our camping and hiking adventures because it’s my main camera.  My kids seem to think that means it’s okay for them to be on theirs 24/7 during a camping trip.  We’ve told them time and again to put them away and eventually we have to lock them in the car while they pout.  Then they go out and play, realizing that the outdoors are WAY better than their electronics!

7.  “I’ve only had one!”  S’mores are everyone’s favorite camping treat.  Kids will tell you until they’re blue in the face that they’ve only had one even though all the marshmallows are gone and they are sick to their stomachs.

6.  “The food is put away.”  No matter where you are camping, there will for sure be little creature friends all around.  Anything from bugs and squirrels to coyotes and bears.  All of these furry friends love your leftovers.  No matter how many times you tell your kids to keep food closed and put away, throw away scraps, tie up bags and put them in the dumpster…somehow you end up with ravaged food strewn from here to eternity.

5.  “It isn’t mine.”  The whole time kids are at camp, they are fighting over toys, books, random rocks…you name it.  But when it comes to clean up time…magically everything belongs to no one.  If it needs to be cleaned up…it definitely does not belong to anyone under the age of 21.

4.  “I put the lizard back.”  Lizard is interchangeable with snail, slug, cricket, potato bug, spider…pretty much any little critter than can be found around camp and caught.  I try to remind my kids that it’s okay to look, and some little friends are even okay to hold…but they REALLY want to go back to their families!

3.  “I put sunscreen on.”  After a day out in the sun, you will notice your older child(ren) looking a little more than pink around the neck and ears.  You told them to put sunscreen on.  You handed them the sunscreen.  You squirted the sunscreen IN THEIR HANDS.  And yet, there is no sunscreen on their skin.

2. “Of course I took my shoes off before going in the tent.”  The bane of tent camping is keeping the inside of the tent from being the catch all of dirt, sand, mud, and water.  You’ll tell your kids a hundred and one times to take their shoes off before going in the tent, but when you lay down in your sleeping bag at night, there is without a doubt dirt, sand, mud, and water in your bag.

1.  “I don’t have to go potty.”  They do.  Every.  Single.  Time.  They do.  It doesn’t matter how many times you ask.  You will be mile 3 into a 5 mile hike with a kid who is scared to pee outside.  You will be snuggled in your dirt filled sleeping bag (see Lie 2) after asking for the last time if anyone needs to pee.  It never fails, they ALWAYS have to go potty.

Do yourself a favor, don’t let these kid camping lies keep you from enjoying the outdoors!  Enjoy the time you have with your kids while you can, and know that eventually their kids will tell them the same lies, and you can just sit back and smile.