The number one piece of advice out there for raising a little human is: routine, routine, routine. And routine can run pretty contrary to hiking, road trips, travel, and camping.
Do we maintain a routine at home? Most days, but the weekend gets a little rowdy. The outdoors comes first on the weekends. Routine second.
Breaking Routine Can Be Scary
Breaking routine can be scary though. Something about the thought of a crying baby or fussy toddler evokes the fear of god in most parents. We are not immune.
Letting go of routine has often been pretty empowering for us as parents though. When we let go of routine, we spend more time parenting on intuition and following West’s lead. I think we underestimate the power of gut in parenting in favor of information. I am a pretty big fan of going on gut in life generally.
Experiment with New Routines
These were my thoughts on a weekend camping trip recently. We had scored one of the best sites down one of our favorite valleys. West toddled around camp picking up the tent poles, the stake hammer, and pulled everything out of the kitchen box. The limits placed on him were few. He was the master of his destiny and he loved it.
Bedtime came and went as West stared into the fire. Then came fussy. So we went to put him down. See if he would sleep in the tent without us for a little, which after a little crying he did. Glorious kid free fire time followed.
Again, I have no formula for successful camping with a tiny human. I have experimentation. I try to hear my kid, even though he has few words. I am astounded by how much kids can say without language. Given how often we misinterpret each others’ words, I think communication through action is a pretty beautiful thing.
We all slept through the night well. We woke up outdoors, which is our favorite place to be. Routine blown out of the water with no casualties. In fact, I know we were all better for it.
