Soapbox

Moms and Daughters

So I’ve got this kid…and she informed me that we were going to have a mother-daughter camping trip. It seemed only fair, since there was a father-son trip in the works for the same time.

Since the guys called dibbs on most of the equipment, I thought we would make it a fairly low-key trip. We’d motor a quick 20 minutes north of our house to the local state park, grill some dogs, she’d ride her bike around the campground and then we’d hit the sack (or bag, as it were.) Up in the morning, scarf a few doughnuts, take a short hike,do a little swimming and then head home. The trip worked out beautifully, except for one minor catastrophe.

We headed off together with me singing one of the silly little songs I always make up. She loves them.
"..Oh Mom and Kate are going camping,
’cause it’s a mother-daughter thing to do.
They’ll take a hike and go swimming,
or maybe they’ll just rent a canoe.
Oh they like to..."

Katie cut me off. "Uh, Mom, what are you doing?"
"I’m just making up a song about our adventure."
"Yeah. Um, why?"

Ouch. Cut to the quick. Guess she outgrew the silly songs while I wasn’t looking. Ok, well, on to the camp ground. Uh oh, what does that sign. say?  CRAP! Oh No! I try to act unconcerned and put a good spin on things.

"Humm. It says "Full Camp". Well that’s just a tiny bit annoying, isn’t it? Ha ha. Oh well, guess we’ll have to choose somewhere else to go. that’ll be interesting, won’t it?"
She wasn’t fooled by the casual approach, and burst into tears. "Our camping trip is ruined!" she wailed.

Seems there was a big all-day concert, festival kind of thing happening a few miles away and every camp ground in the area was filled with concert-goers from all over.
I bought Katie a bag of Skittles and a bottle of juice to bribe her into a better mood while I got out my State Park guidebook and checked the map. I found a small park about 35 more minutes north. I’d never been there before, but the guidebook said "..it is rarely full, even on weekends.." and that was my number one priority.

Soon Katie was bouncing happily beside me on the front seat, eating her Skittles as I kept the car from being blown off the interstate by cars and trucks and old ladies in Oldsmobiles passing me at approximately mach 1.
When we got there, Glory Be! there were campsites to spare. We chose one under some tall pines, and the rest of the trip went pretty much according to plan. While we were roasting our hot dogs Katie scooted over closer to me and said,
"Well. You and me. Here we are, Mom and Katie, having an adventure! Mother-daughter camping. Yes sir. Buddies!" I grinned into the smoke. It was nice to see that she was excited about it after all.
"Oh, Mom, when we go to bed tonight, are you going to bed the same time as me?"
"I expect so."
She practicaly wriggled with delight. I guess not getting sent off to bed first when you’re the littlest is a big deal.

The next day, as we were heading back towards Columbus, she asked, "Do you think that we will be able to have another mother-daughter camping trip sometime?"
"Oh sure, Kathleen. I’d like to do it again. This was fun."
"Goody!" She sat and stared thoughtfully out the window for a minute.
"Um, Mom? Do you think, maybe, we might be able to do a mother-son and a father-daughter campout next time?"

Sure, kid, if you’d like. I’ll tell your dad to be sure to bring the Skittles.