Last updated on February 9th, 2023 at 05:35 pm
If you’ve ever considered taking the whole family camping, then you shouldn’t think twice about doing so. The advantages of sharing something you love with your kids are quite staggering. Here are the top 13 benefits of camping for families.
Whether you’re looking to unplug or to create shared memories, camping as a family strengthens the family bond. There’s so much to learn and to teach on the trail.
1. Explore The World
Some of my best memories as a child are from family camping trips. Seeing and doing things that I would have otherwise never experienced are some of my fondest treasures.
We’re not unique in this, many avid campers grew up taking summer trips. As parents, many outdoor enthusiasts want nothing more than to share those same experiences with their own children.
The world is a beautiful place, and the more of it I see, the more I want to see.
From the Grand Canyon to the Poconos, there are literally tens of thousands of places to enjoy the great outdoors. Each with its own unique experiences and activities.
Majestic mountains, glassy lakes, evergreen forests, desert gorges, and underground caves are just a scratch of what this world offers.
Exploring the world is a very accessible hobby. Sharing the experience with your family is an opportunity that lasts a lifetime.
So instead of planning a visit to Las Vegas or the Big Apple, try planning a trip to a state or national park near you.
What’s more, most offer hiking, biking, kayaking, bird watching, and fishing. Others offer zip lines, archery, white water rafting, and horseback riding.
Children blossom with experience and a chance to broaden their interests and imaginations.
When you go camping, you never run out of things to see and do. Additionally, kids love tasks and responsibility, so we’ve found the best back packs for them in our Best Kids Backpacks for Hiking post.
2. Physical Activity
Because you never run out of things to see or do, you’re always on the go. People often erroneously believe that camping is just sitting in chairs around a campsite with nothing to do.
However, for avid campers, this is anything but true. In fact, from the moment you arrive at your destination, your days are filled with as much adventure as you can handle.
Furthermore, kids especially love to run and play, and camping allows them to do just that. From setting up camp to hiking and swimming to even playing tag, camping offers an abundance of physical activity.
Most people know that physical activity is essential for the physical and mental development of children. But physical activity has a multitude of other benefits as well.
Being active is a good way to boost energy. Exercise gets your heart and lungs more oxygen, which gives you more sustainability throughout your day.
Physical activity is also a good way to control your mood. Activity stimulates certain chemicals in the brain that just make you feel better.
Furthermore, for those living with conditions like diabetes, stroke, and high blood pressure, it’s an essential tool for staying healthy.
3. Unplug from Electronics
For years, scientists have warned of the consequences of too much screen time.
Camping is one of the best ways to unplug from the internet. We still like to bring a phone for pictures of plants and animals that we want to identify later.
Take a few days and just get back to the way life used to be before social media. In fact, bring a nice pair of binoculars instead.
For many of us, time is what we value most. We always complain about not having enough of it. Yet we constantly give it away to screen time.
By unplugging from electronics, you have an opportunity to spend quality time with friends and loved ones. In our opinion, getting away from social media and content is one of the best benefits of camping for families.
4. Reduce Stress
In addition, studies also confirm that internet use causes stress, anxiety, depression, and even dependency.
Unplugging for some quality time with family is the best way to reduce stress levels. The only thing you have to worry about is when you’re going to eat.
There are no morning wake-up alarms, no schedules to keep, and no traffic to get you frustrated.
Just good quality fresh air, beautiful scenery, and your family. What more could you ask for?
5. Better Sleep
Furthermore, excessive use of technology also significantly disrupts your sleep habits. In fact, screen time blocks your body’s ability to produce melatonin, which regulates your sleep.
Spending a few days off the grid in conjunction with increased physical activity results in a deeper, more restful sleep.
Let the songs of crickets, birds, and frogs lull you to sleep instead of emails and reddit scrolling.
You’ll wake up feeling more refreshed than ever.
6. Soak Up Vitamin D
Additionally, while your melatonin is boosted by night, serotonin increases by day.
Your body was designed to be charged by the sun. Wonder why the world struggles with depression? They don’t get enough sun.
For instance, the sun triggers your body to produce serotonin. Seratonin elevates your mood and helps you feel calm.
The sun is also the primary source of Vitamin D. Insufficient Vitamin D can cause fatigue, osteoporosis, cancer, and depression just to name a few ailments.
Vitamin D is essential to help your body process calcium to keep your bones, joints, and muscles healthy.
Lower levels of Vitamin D also contribute to higher levels of pain and inflammation.
Spending a few days camping in the sun is a great way to recharge the body and get your chemicals straightened out.
7. Appreciate Every Meal Together
Sadly, families today don’t sit around the dinner table like they used to. Most families are operating on a variety of different schedules and everyone is going their separate ways.
In fact, the fast pace of daily life is so intense that a good majority of families spend a lot of time eating takeout.
You won’t find any Burger King or Mcdonald’s in the woods.
Because camping requires you to prepare your own food, eating together can be as hilarious as it is comforting. So, fireside meals are another of the amazing benefits of camping for families.
Moreover, it’s a great opportunity to help kids be involved in meal preparation and cleanup. The first meal I ever learned to cook was on a camp trip. And, those toasty Wonder Bread PB&Js popped out of a cast iron mold were downright delicious!
In addition, teach your teenagers how to light a grill, or use a propane stove. Let them help fillet the fish, or help you make foil dinners. Younger kids can play in the water while they help you clean up the dishes.
Additionally, camp sites are very kid friendly, as there are no tall counters to pull a stool up to. As a result, kids can easily help out with tasks.
Camping meals are always a team effort. Best of all, everyone gets to share a meal together, which is often something we take for granted.
And, to help you cook together quickly, we’ve found the best stoves in our Best Camping Stove post.
8. Family Bonding
Not only are you fostering a love for nature and independence for your children, you’re creating lasting bonds. The best of the benefits of camping for families is getting together and bonding.
As children grow up, they tend to drift into their own lives. However, if you start your traditions while they’re young, they’ll be more likely to return to camp with you as an adult. Plus, they’ll likely bring grandkids.
Camping with your kids has a way of forging bonds that will last a lifetime. You’re building the foundation of the family unit. You’re teaching your kids the importance of spending time with family and the value that has to offer.
Not only are you fostering a love for nature and independence for your children, you’re creating lasting bonds.
As children grow up, they tend to drift into their own lives. However, if you start your traditions while they’re young, they’ll be more likely to return to camp with you as an adult. Plus, they’ll likely bring grandkids.
Camping with your kids has a way of forging bonds that will last a lifetime. You’re building the foundation of the family unit. You’re teaching your kids the importance of spending time with family and the value that has to offer.
And, to help you share a casual moment together, we’ve found the best lounge equipment in our Best Camping Chair post.
9. Find Common Interests
In addition, families that routinely spend quality time together also develop common interests. Whether it’s hiking, biking, kayaking, or fishing you get a chance to do something you love with someone you love.
As kids age, they seem to get sucked away from their parents and into their peers.
And, creating a common hobby gives your kids a reason to want to spend time with you. Camping is one of the greatest ways to connect with your kids.
The rat race of the work routine or environmental stressors can get overwhelming. As adults, we often feel the pressures and responsibilities that detach us from our children. In turn, our children seek their entertainment elsewhere further detaching from us.
However, camping is a way to keep families from becoming too distant from one another.
As a result, routinely spending quality time together allows everyone to reconnect and find common interests they enjoy.
10. Build Self Esteem & Confidence
Furthermore, learning self-reliance is a great way to build independence in yourself or for your children.
For instance, camping presents a set of skills we don’t use in everyday life. And, the results are usually not on display for all our peers to judge.
Constructing campsites, building and cooking with fires, and navigating the wilderness are just a few skill sets that camping offers.
As we grow in independence and self-reliance, we naturally build self-esteem and feel more confident about ourselves and our abilities.
Confidence and self-esteem build successful, productive, and proactive adults.
11. Learn (and Teach) New Skills
What a wonderful opportunity to teach our kids all kinds of things, especially how to overcome challenges, adversity, and disappointment.
In addition, camping with your parents can bring them a serious sense of pride in all their children can accomplish. Every generation can benefit by teaching and learning from each other.
Let’s face it, not every camping trip is perfect. Part of the fun in camping is sometimes overcoming the obstacles that Mother Nature throws at you.
For example, a day without catching fish, or getting turned around on your hike are great real-world challenges to overcome together.
Furthermore, teaching kids tools to deal with adversity fosters grit and resilience, making them all the stronger.
Furthermore, teaching kids tools to deal with adversity fosters grit and resilience, making them all the stronger.
It’s also a great opportunity for us to learn from our kids. Believe it or not, kids have a lot to offer the adult community.
One of the best things we can learn is how to lighten up and have fun.
As adults, we sometimes take life too seriously. It’s okay to play tag with your kids.
Kids also love to share what they know. Let them teach you a game or two and go have fun.
12. Develop a Lifelong Love and Respect for Nature
Additionally, kids naturally love to explore new things. They’re curious. Kids ask around 125 questions a day on average. Imagine the answers you can learn together.
Importantly, camping as a family will facilitate a whole families’ love and respect for nature.
For instance, you can nurture their understanding by teaching them all about the “Leave No Trace” mentality and why it’s important.
Explore plants, animals, insects, and reptiles together for optimum bonding. Your kids will thank you for it when they’re older.
13. Make Lifelong Memories
Finally, and maybe most importantly, you’ll make irreplaceable, lifelong, loving memories. Memories are an important component of life, they shape who we are.
Memories are remembering our experiences, and experience is one of life’s best teachers.
And, whether you’re thinking of bringing your kids, your parents, or just your siblings on a trip, these memories will surely enrich everyone’s life.
How many nostalgic feelings have you experienced in life? Share those same experiences with your children, so they too can enjoy a lifetime of memories.
Fun For the Whole Family
Many of us have fond memories of camping when we were children. It’s only natural to wish to share something we love with our family. And the benefits to families are staggering. Camping together as a family strengthens your bonds, provides adventures of a lifetime, and creates a trove of memories. Best of all, it’s relatively inexpensive for any age to participate.
Teach your kids the value of spending quality time with family, and nurture their love for nature. In the end, you’ll help them grow into confident and self-reliant adults. And, if you’re fortunate enough, one day you’ll have the privilege of camping with your grandkids too. Regardless of your familial structure, the benefits of camping for families greatly outweigh staying at home and growing apart.
About the Author
Sarah Sampsell
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