Walkers
Spent the week in Watkins Glen koa. How do you keep people from cutting thru your camp site without being rude. Has to be a better way. Sorry had to vent.
Forum Discussion
Sometimes my actions seem to make me out a curmudgeon and I get headed that way with people who cut through our sites. Lately I decided to try a new tack, one more in line with being the 70 something professor of camping manners. A few weeks ago we were in San Diego with our DGKs and every site was taken as it was the first weekend of summer vacation in the area.
Our site faced a huge green space where kids play ball and chase each other around with water soakers. It's a great place to watch kids playing and for the most part getting along famously. The families on either side of us were friends and often the kids were in age from about 7 or 8 to maybe 12 to 14 and swapped where they got together, sometimes on the right sometimes on the left. Usually by cutting through our site.
I usually take exception to this behavior but under the circumstances, I tried to help the young ones understand it isn't a good idea to invade other peoples space. I know what I told them does not meet with everyone's opinion but I think it was a great compromise. I stopped the youngest girl from the right side and asked her not to go between our chairs and our fire ring. That took up all the space from the front of the rig to the end of our site.
I briefly, very briefly and in a low calm voice told her why. I told her I knew there would be times when a ball would take an errant path or a frisbee and coming into our site to retrieve them is fine, just be careful and don't trip over my big feet doing it.
It took a few times of the kids walking through our site with the little girl going around the end and of us waving and saying hi to her and the rest of the kids followed suit.
Later I talked to the parents from that site and told them how cute, bright and respectful their daughter was. They started talking then and asked about our travels(all the states are filled in and all but three provinces) and asked a lot about when we did all of it. Really nice folks and great kids.
Something I learned from a Sioux elder is, speak to the parents through the children. The children will change the world, usually for the better, while the adults will support their children but are slow to accept change. Just one of my funky ideas.
And by the way, there are some rude and inconsiderate folks that will never understand how lucky they are in being able to camp and how precious privacy is in this day and age. Like the Eagles song says, "Get Over It".
Our site faced a huge green space where kids play ball and chase each other around with water soakers. It's a great place to watch kids playing and for the most part getting along famously. The families on either side of us were friends and often the kids were in age from about 7 or 8 to maybe 12 to 14 and swapped where they got together, sometimes on the right sometimes on the left. Usually by cutting through our site.
I usually take exception to this behavior but under the circumstances, I tried to help the young ones understand it isn't a good idea to invade other peoples space. I know what I told them does not meet with everyone's opinion but I think it was a great compromise. I stopped the youngest girl from the right side and asked her not to go between our chairs and our fire ring. That took up all the space from the front of the rig to the end of our site.
I briefly, very briefly and in a low calm voice told her why. I told her I knew there would be times when a ball would take an errant path or a frisbee and coming into our site to retrieve them is fine, just be careful and don't trip over my big feet doing it.
It took a few times of the kids walking through our site with the little girl going around the end and of us waving and saying hi to her and the rest of the kids followed suit.
Later I talked to the parents from that site and told them how cute, bright and respectful their daughter was. They started talking then and asked about our travels(all the states are filled in and all but three provinces) and asked a lot about when we did all of it. Really nice folks and great kids.
Something I learned from a Sioux elder is, speak to the parents through the children. The children will change the world, usually for the better, while the adults will support their children but are slow to accept change. Just one of my funky ideas.
And by the way, there are some rude and inconsiderate folks that will never understand how lucky they are in being able to camp and how precious privacy is in this day and age. Like the Eagles song says, "Get Over It".
