Camping Trips And Family Bonding
† Wednesday, September 22nd, 2010Just about any camping expedition, with the exploring, camp set up, outdoor cooking, outdoor cooking stove and general interaction, is an excellent venue for family bonding.
Personal relationships are a highly influencing aspect of our development and perhaps the most important is family bonding. The special relationships between fathers and sons and mothers and daughter is based on the level and quality of the bonding between them. This is a basic structure that makes for healthy, or in unfortunate cases, unhealthy development. Much of what we become is influenced, positively or negatively, by our family relations.
The family structure provides father role models for the sons as mothers o for their daughters.
Just about any camping expedition, even if it is not a good one (and this sometimes happens), is an ideal opportunity for family bonding – the bad times are sometimes the best teaching opportunities while the best ones allow everyone to share moments that in time will become great memories. Being away from the home, the television and all other distractions provides moments where sharing, talking, teaching and doing things together just flow.
A camping expedition is open to anyone and covering a large part of all age groups. From children, teens, parents and more. Each trip will have its own unique moments and experiences and this just highlights the bonding opportunities as well as the potential learning and teaching moments.
You have to make it real so here are five types of camping trips you can choose from.
1. Plan a hiking trip. If your children are smaller, make it a short one, but help them appreciate nature. It is gratifying when you realize the closeness this type of trips builds up.
2. Fishing Expeditions. As with other camping alternatives, part of the fun is to choose where, with whom and the getting the right gear. From the point of view of bonding, fishing implies a teaching and sharing experience. You have many alternatives in America – fresh water (lakes, rivers, streams) and sea fishing (off the coast or further out).
3. RV Expeditions. All in all a great alternative for your camping trips. You can spend longer time away, you can travel further and enjoy any of the numerous camping sites that cater for RV’s. Also, and people sometimes forget this, is that you can include other camping activities such as fishing and hiking as part of your overall trip and at the same time the typical camping site activities such as cooking and using your outdoor cooking stove. In short, together with many home comforts you have a lot of flexibility as to choices and activities.
4. Backpacking. For the hardier soul and admittedly demanding a certain amount of physical fitness, these trips are a great way of staying in contact with nature. If the sun shines, if it rains or if it snows, on a backpack trip you will enjoy (and perhaps suffer) what nature has to offer. It is more for adventurers but the challenge is certainly worthwhile. Not all trips reflect a Daniel Boone type of life as you can go for much shorter expeditions with friends, family and preferably with your children. Just make sure you organize it taking into account everyone’s capabilities.
5. Camping in a Tent. In the realm of camping trips this one is definitely the king. You have many options in camping sites, but the important part is the sleeping out. For children, of all ages, there is something about sleeping out, with the dark night above overhanging the tent and knowing there are no walls around. There is a delicious feeling of danger in the night, but knowing that the parents are around provides just the right note – security in protection but the image of the wild.