camping with kids

[noffti]

Hi, we are going to be camping with our 8 year old boy and wondered how many families camped outside the family area? We don't want to isolate him but on the other hand we like a few drinks on a night and don't want to p!ss off other families with our inane chatter in the early hours! Do most people with kids camp together in a designated area or are they everywhere? We've only really experienced Glastonbury before so related info/advice appreciated. Ta

[Chris]

Sounds like a thorny one - if you're not in the family area and people are sitting up swearing all night, it'd be difficult to expect people to be quieter around you while your little one is trying to get to sleep.

[peridot]

My personal view would be that if you're planning on staying up much beyond 1am and want to play music / have a loud laugh then the general camping area might be best. But if you're just sitting around having a drink and a reasonably quiet chat then the family area should be okay.

Just my view however and I'm sure there'll be many others from one extreme to another.

[cyfarthfa]

Inane chatter good. Bongos BAAAD. Family area was v good last year. Kids entertained eachother. Its a festival not the Scouts- give and take and most people won't be asleep by 1.00am.

[noffti]

question answered, family camp will do. Bongos and juggling are not allowed in our camp! ta very much. see you all there

[peridot]

You're welcome to camp beside us any time noffti. The fact that you even asked the question indicates consideration for others around you - something the bongo players seem to lack ;D

[heddwch]

I was in a group of around 15 'adults' last year and had a similar sized group next to us, but with kids.

Things were fine until night time when they went to bed at around 1am but we carried on partying, on a quiet scale. Even though we tried to keep the noise down we were still too noisy for their kids to sleep properly and as a result the kids were very irritable in the morning, especially around 7am when we were trying to sleep!

Result was two lots of campers not so happy due to different noise reasons. I suggest you keep to the family area where other parents are used to being woken early.

[Chris]

I've got kids (not bringing them to the festival though), and I wouldn't camp anywhere but the family area if they were with me.

I can't expect people who've shelled out a hundred quid for a festival ticket to sit quietly after I've gone to bed, and they can't expect my kids to sit quietly when they wake up at 7am.

[noffti]

It's a festival and festivals are not designed to get a rest. Personally, I don't care too much for sleep anyhow and I'm used to my beloved family being grumpy cos they are tired. Fill the grown ups with narcotics and the kids with colourants and flavourings then everything is usually fine. I do have a slight problem with people invading my space with juggling paraphenalia but laughing, shouting, bongo's & bagpipes can carry on 24 hours for me. ;D

[fergusbilly]

Family campsite every time. I've taken mine to loads of festivals and they get a real kick from being around other kids. And yes, it is a festival. No right minded person will bother if you're sitting up chatting, drinking etc. If it's not loud enough to bother your own kids I suspect it won't trouble anyone else much

[woodenrabbit]

Camping with kids was ACE last year - you will find the whole experience restorative of ones faith that families are still able to behave as families in this day and age.

[fluz]

Family site it is for us too. It's our first time and we'll be arriving with a large dome tent and one of those 3 room numbers on Friday evening...is there loads of space or will we be wandering aimlessly for hours trying to squeeze into a metre square space?

[woodenrabbit]

There's loads of space - but it starts to fill quickly from midday Friday.