Yep, kids say the “darnest” things. Well our kid does at least. He says we should sell our condo for $50 and buy a tent for $20. That way, we can move wherever we want, we just have to pack up our tent.
I spoke to him about campervans and that was a pretty cool concept of driving with your ‘home’ around.
Coco#1: But Mommy, we can’t fold and pack a campervan and go on flights. So a tent is much better!
Kid has a point.
This topic came up when we were having a picnic at our nearby park a few days ago and the sun was setting. We were flat on our backs across each other on our mats and looking at the stars. The kids were really happy and Mr.C and I were really content.
As a parent, all that I could ever hope to give my children is a strong sense of doing what’s right and a childhood that’s filled with memories that we created together. I can’t think of a better way to teach them these values that I hope to impart by actually walking the talk myself.
So when my five year old if he could go out and camp with us, I thought to myself “well this is a perfect teachable moment”. He really, really wants to camp but not as much as he wants to go to Legoland (which ranks at gazillion times on his scale of 0 to infinity), but pretty close competition. We do not have any camping gear. We leave in exactly 2 months on our big adventure. What do we do? I don’t want to make a fresh purchase for a single time use. At the same time, I think it’s a great experience to have. We live and breathe adventure!
What’s the best that I can do at this point in time? Perhaps I’ll ask and the universe will provide. So I reached out to this group of ladies in Singapore that’s built community of sharing information and giving advice and just being generally awesome. I asked if anyone would score me a solid and lend me their camping gear, and she said – go right ahead, take mine! Thanks, kind stranger.
Now this is where this story is going to take a life of its own in our family. This story is never going to be told without it’s very, very important element of how truly profound a simple act can be.
- You have it in your ability to be kind and create happiness at any given time. Create happiness within yourself by helping others and creating happiness within others by being kind. I have no intention of using the lady’s equipment without giving her anything in return, it’s not what she expects but she will get some fruits. I could have put the cost of the fruits into actually buying a tent but then I miss out on every other by-product of me asking to borrow one! The joy I felt knowing of such a kind person. The joy she will have when she receives the fruits. The lessons our kids are going to learn. Can’t put money on any of that 😉
- While we are thankfully in a position to be able to afford a tent, it just makes no economical sense and it just adds waste to the world. We can have the experience we want simply by asking to borrow, rather than shelling out money to buy it in the first instance. How many other areas of your life is this applicable? Probably very many. How often do you use the ladder at home? In a condo with 900 units, do we need 900 ladders? 🙂
- Be resourceful, at any time. Don’t get stuck at all the reasons you can’t move forward but keep asking yourself, what are my options here?
Well, it’s been a fun turn of events and exciting to think of the mini adventure that awaits. parenting win. Life win. Now I need to book a camping site before I can say Nparks win 🙂
