There are many families who go RV boondocking with children for long periods.
Boondocking With Children
Boondocking is actually a great educational experience for children. More families are going out boondocking at a time when people are becoming more dependent on public utilities.
Many parents choose to home-school their children while living as full time RV boondockers. They choose to expose their children to the concept of location-independence, the appreciation of nature, and self-reliance.
RV Parks and Campgrounds Have More Rules
It’s actually more impractical to bring kids to an RV park or developed campground. This is because many other RVers see them as a nuisance. As a result, RV parks have more rules on child supervision and quiet hours. RVers often complain about other RVers with kids.
Boondocking Offers Fewer Opportunities to Get Into Trouble
Boondocking on open, public lands offers children fewer opportunities to get into trouble. There are fewer people around. There are fewer girls and boys to flirt with. Many boondocking sites don’t even have cellphone signal. Instead, boondocking forces parents and children to interact more, just like the old days.
Boondocking Promotes Family Cohesion
Boondocking with children means parents spend more time with their kids…
- They tend to dine as a family more often
- They spend more time hiking and exploring the area
- Parents spend more time teaching their kids about plants, mountains, stars, animals, weather, and geography
Boondocking Gets Kids Away From Video Games
Time spent hiking, climbing a hill, pitching a tent, building a campfire, roasting marshmallows, star gazing, etc., exposes kids to the many wonders of the outdoors.
While there are many boondocking locations with cellphone signal, there are many more without. Spending a weekend, or an entire week, without data connectivity, can work wonders in changing a child’s perspective of the world.
Boondocking Dispels Myths About Nature
Videos, movies, and television has created a false sense of reality about nature with scenes of bears, wolves, snakes, bats, constantly wandering into camp, breaking into RVs, and chasing people up trees. Time spent boondocking on open, public lands teaches children that this is myth, and that there’s a lot less to be afraid of with camping and hiking through the wild.
There’s also a myth about open, public lands being filled with crazy, dangerous people invading campsites, stealing valuables and raping women. Nothing could be further from the truth. Violent criminals don’t spend their time out in the wilderness; they stay in urban areas where they have more to steal and rape.
The media has also created a myth that being out in the wild is closer to death, with a myriad of survivalist shows that overly dramatize nature as deadly place to be in.
Boondocking Teaches Children How to be More Self-Sufficient
Being away from the electrical power grid, city water and sewer, and underground gas lines, gives children a more down-to-earth perspective about how to be less dependent on public utilities and more self-reliant. Meanwhile, spending time in an RV park with hookups for electricity, water, sewage, and television, only reinforces the belief that a child needs public utilities to survive.
Boondocking with children presents the opportunity to learn about first aid, natural remedies, and even edible plants. Open, public lands allows parents to teach kids how to shoot a gun, clean it, and care for it. Parents also have the chance to teach kids how about RV maintenance, including electrical, plumbing, heating and cooling, and how to use various tools.