Pennsic as an adult (especially a young, unencumbered adult) is one thing. It turns into a different vacation all together once you add some kids to the mix. This is my guide on keeping Pennsic a fun adult vacation, while enjoying it with a family.
Family Friendly Camp Site.
One of the most important things when choosing where to camp, for me, is that my kids feel welcome, and like it’s their vacation too. Pennsic is really for adults, and adults want to do adult things, and don’t always want kids around. That’s cool, and I get it, but my kids are a huge part of my life, and this is something we share. I made sure that where we camp would be a place where kids are accepted, and welcome. This, I have found, draws more families with kids. What’s great about a camp with multiple kids, is they entertain themselves. We have a play tent filled with toys for the kids to play in, and a baby pool filled with water, and water guns to keep them cool on those brutally hot days.
Food For All
With multiple families around, I found in our camp that it works for us to take turn cooking large meals. One person may cook breakfast, and another dinner. Someone else will put out a 5-gallon drum of lemonade out with some pretzels, or other snacks. We have an agreeable camp, so this works well. With a smaller camp or even just us, I would still have a drum of lemonade or water out for everyone, along with some snacks that people can grab. I make coffee in camp, and there is a rule among the kids – you must entertain yourselves quietly until the parents had coffee.
Bed Time?
If you put your kids to bed early, or at all, at Pennsic, they do have a bedtime story reading each night at Pennsic university. Its summer vacation, and its Pennsic, I don’t give my kids a bedtime. If there is an event, or a party that is kid friendly, we will attend and bring a wagon with us and fill it with pillows and blankets. If the kids get tired and we are out and about, they can crawl in the wagon, and we will get them home via wagon (Better than carrying them the whole way).
Handling Day Time Activities
This depends greatly on your support system, and the age of your kids. With very little support system and young kids, it's going to be the hardest. What we did in this situation was plan out each day ahead of time, and compromise. We would look at the battles that my husband couldn’t miss, and I would take the kiddos that day. The days where the battles were miss-able (or there were none) I’d find activities that I wanted to do, and my husband would take the kids while I took a class. By dinner time we all reconvened and spent time together as a family. Whoever did have the kids would take them to children’s point or keep watch over them in camp and let them do crafts, play games or play on the playground. (Often while I nurse 700ml of a beverage of my choice)
There is one day dedicated to children though. There is a fool's parade, a children's fete with games, and bouncy houses, and all kinds of things for children to do. The kids even get a chance on the battlefield for the annual water battle. The little kids invade the castle with water balloons, and water guns, as the older kids defend. It's honestly one of my highlights of the entire week.
Handling the Night Life
Our camp is comprised of many families, so we developed a night life system. Since there are many kids in camp, they don’t require much care, as they entertain each other. So even on nights you are “home with the kids”, you’re still sitting by a bon fire, with a beverage of your choice, and whatever company or music you have nearby – so it’s not exactly a bad time. However, that being said, it's also not the bog. We have 1 night that is ladies’ night, when all the ladies leave the kids with the men and have a girl’s night out in the bog. Then the following night, it’s the gents turn. Then we do couples night, where half the couples go out, while the other half stay home with the kids. We try to mix this up as much as we can, so everyone gets a chance to hang out with each other.
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