Whether your family is all grown up or you’re just starting out, camping with the family is a great experience. Most people focus on the time around the fire, the s’mores, and the stories, but there are more reasons than these to get out there with your family.
Here are 4 underrated reasons to take to the campsite with your crew this year.
1. Understand each other better
When you camp, you spend significant time with a small group of people in tight quarters. This means you get to observe the people you’re with in a completely new light. The opportunity: see how your family members do things.
Do they set up tent first, or hit the trail? Do they offer to help with food, or are they too wiped from their day job to leave the folding chair? At the end of the day, this is an opportunity to observe each other and, ultimately, understand each other’s current situation.
2. Family time like never before
When you’re home, there are a million things to distract each member of the family. From chores to homework to work to Internet, it’s easy to stay disconnected.
The beauty of camping is it still allows you to retain your individualism with day hikes or a solo trail run, but everyone reconvenes at the day’s end to the same location and the same activity: spending time together.
3. Transfer control to each family member
Does one person in your family always cook at home? Camping is an opportunity to shake it up! Let each member of your family own a meal. From pre-campsite shopping to fireside cooking, this is a great opportunity to give everyone a time to shine, and following each others’ lead is a great way to connect.
4. Time in silence is still time growing together
Camping is about spending time together and connecting.
But the beauty of it is it doesn’t have to be about forced conversation. You’re not going to get to the bottom of a behavior problem or your own pent-up frustration with work. But when you spend time together out in the wild, even in silence, you’re building new bonds. The time you spend together is different when you camp. It brings you together without any effort. And that is perhaps the most underrated effect of all.