r/happilyOAD

My spouse and I just returned from a two-night camping trip with our four-year-old daughter. Camping was a big part of my life growing up and it's something I'm excited to share with my kid. My question is: does anyone have recommendations to keep a child occupied/entertained on a camping trip? Our trip went really well—we went on an easy hike around a lake and our campsite was right by a little creek she liked to play in. She helped us cook and clean up. She had art stuff. She had her little strider bike. But even with all of that, camping can be full of down time, and we mostly played a game called Zingo that thankfully my daughter loved. We played it so. Much. Any other game recommendations or other activities you'd recommend for a trip, camping or otherwise, with an only child?

Being OAD is looking to be better and better each day.

I took the past 2 days off for personal days and I spent the first one with my daughter. We were in our backyard, we painted together, she was in and out of her play house, the weather was nice and it was so peaceful, just me and her. Although of course I still had to deal with her terrible two tantrums and defiance, I still appreciated that we could spend that time together one on one and we could grow our bond. I feel complete and it felt special just sharing that with her and no one else.

Now the second day, she was super cranky and now she’s getting into a phase where she add’s a scream to top off her cry lol. So, I decide to take her to daycare and because she does thrive on routine and she does usually go to daycare 4/5 days a week. I loved the time I had with her yesterday but I couldn’t wait to have a day all to myself and not having to tend to someone all day. I can lay just completely still if I wanted to and watch my favorite show or do anything completely unbothered.

I would talk to other women at my job who have around 2-4 kids and one of them was telling me how she has no time for herself anymore as they get older their sports run so late that sometimes she doesn’t get home until 10:30pm and she has to figure out what to feed everybody and everything that us mother’s know we have on our plate and that just seems so stressful to me. I couldn’t imagine not having any time to myself when it’s
so necessary for me to function.

That being said, I love that I have the time and energy to full give myself to my daughter and that I have time to fully pour into myself as well and that’s not something I think I would never give up.