Camping With Twins

It is the middle of the night and you’ve finally fallen asleep despite the chilly air and the hard ground.

But then you are poked and prodded by a little child that needs to go to the potty.

You know the latrine is a good walk away and that your girls are scared of all the spiderwebs and bugs that live there. And yet you, for a moment, consider sending your little daughter out with a flashlight to take care of it herself.

Nevertheless, you wake up, get your shoes on and prepare to jump out of the tent.

But wait. Your other daughter sleeps peacefully unaware that you are leaving.

Surely she will wake in tears the moment after you leave and she finds herself alone.

Surely, she too will need to go potty.

So you wake her up, get her shoes on and trudge with both daughters to the latrine. You stand guard so the bugs won’t bite.

With the deed done, you head back to the tent, take shoes off, and help the kiddos crawl back into their sleeping bags.

You rest for a little bit longer until you are once again wakened by a soft voice telling you it is time for breakfast.

Camping is great! Especially with twins.

Camping Alone with Twins

My twin girls were 4 years old when I took them camping by myself.

Well, it wasn’t really by myself. We went with our church group on a “Daddy Daughter” camp out.

The girls were so excited they couldn’t contain themselves. While we had gone camping before as a family, this was the first time when we were on our own.

As a father with very young girls, my mind was swirling with the possibilities of them standing on fire ant mounds, rolling around in poison ivy, or getting lost in the woods. Fortunately, the great outdoors were kind to us. Here are some lessons we learned that can help you when you go camping with your twins.

Double the Fun

I’ll be the first to admit that camping with my girls was fun. Twins seem to have a way of doing things together and discovering new things together that makes everything more exciting.

Soak in the fun and take time to watch your twins and see how they interact with each other and their new environment while camping.

Camping Twins Are Adventurous

Because there are so many things to discover outside, you’ll notice that one twin will get the other in trouble. “Hey look at that…” from one sister often leads to the other taking the action the first was too afraid to do herself.

It seems that the twins share bad ideas and accelerate the trouble they can find. These ideas, which seem great to them at the time, often lead to tears – but typically funny stories after the fact.

Double the Gear

Make sure you pack double the gear. Our girls liked having their own backpacks (that they helped pack) with supplies and clothes. Double sleeping bags were also handy even though the girls only used up a fraction of the space inside one.

Buddy System

As a Boy Scout, I learned that you always need to have your buddy. The joy of twins is that you have a built-in buddy. Tell your twins that they are each other’s buddy and need to stick together. They need to always be able to see each other. If one of them gets hurt, the other can help or seek out help.

Camping is great. It is just that sleeping on the ground thing that isn’t always the best.

Camping with twins is super fun. You’ll have more adventures than you could have anticipated. Enjoy!