Indoor winter camping, that is. We’ve had many too-cold-to-leave-the-house days because of this Polar Vortex hitting the midwest. Jack was still entertained by his toys, but I was getting a little bored. What better time to set up our new tent in the basement? Here are some tips to follow:
Check the dimensions of your tent and make sure it fits in the space you have.
This new tent was given to us by some great friends who borrowed our old tent for a youth group retreat and our tent got damaged. However our old tent was from high school, a friend of ours had bought it and didn’t want it so Jeff took it, and it was already falling apart. We told our friends not to even worry if anything happened to it. But they’re so nice they bought us a brand new tent! Unfortunately this tent has not been used because we haven’t dared camping with a baby yet. Having never even set this tent up, and since our basement is pretty big, it never occurred to me that the tent wouldn’t fit in our basement.
Make sure your toddler who agrees to help you in the beginning, is committed to completing the project.
- Notice the poles are almost hitting the walls, and the toddler is just watching tv.
Jack do you want to set up the tent? “Yeah!!!” His enthusiasm waned quickly. He seemed most excited about closing the door to the under-the-stairs-closet, trapping me inside while I retrieved the tent. This should have been a warning for me. Jack helped get the poles in, but when it came time to hook the poles into the four corners and pop up the middle, Jack was more interested in The Cat in The Hat.
Jack can you come hold this for Mommy? “No. No. No.” Ok then can you bring the chair over? We both looked at the blue computer chair which I planned on using to hold up the middle of the tent so I could get the pole ends hooked in. “Ok,” Jack said and he went to get the chair which was just a few feet away. He returns and hands me a little toy grill brush as if that was exactly what I asked for. I was laughing, and confused. Jack proceeded to go upstairs and find himself a snack. However I was too far into this project to abandon it now.
Fill the tent with fun.
Once the tent was up, we grabbed a chair, some books and toys and had a little fun. We especially had fun with Jack’s chair which kept flipping over. It made a cold day a little more fun!
Debbie Chun 