Toddler crying while camping and sensitive neighbors

Hi Outdoor community! Here just want to share our last camping experience and may be vent a little lol. So we went camping with our 2yo for the second time. First time went great. However the second time she was more upset and cried the first night. Nothing crazy, we calmed her down and she would go back to sleep, and the next day we hiked around, no problem. On the second night she cried again, on and off. At some point a guy from a campsite next to us came over and said "Excuse me, is everything ok?". I told him everything is fine, she is just crying, but she will calm down soon. Then he started going off like he didn't sleep for two nights and may be I should take her to the car to sleep. All I could say was "I am sorry" because our car wasn't set up for sleeping and I was not going to drag my crying kid in the middle of the night outside the tent . He eventually left. I kept replaying it in my head thinking what an asshole! Like we don't know she is crying or not doing anything to calm her down. I still have that sucky feeling inside... How do you deal with such people and situations? I am very non confrontational and quick to apologize because I don't want to escalate any conflict. But this was a bit too much 😢
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He probably never had a child before. I was camping with my two kids. 2 and 4 at the time. I couldn’t sleep until maybe 3am. This baby in the trailer next to us was crying from 1-3am. It was on and off. I honestly felt worse for the baby’s parents. I remember when my kids were babies. It wasn’t as bad as that baby. I was at peace because both my kids were sleeping. I wasn’t mad at all. At that camping time, I was more upset at my husband and his friends due to other reasons that I don’t want to get into. I used to be very inpatient with noisy children before I had my own kids so that guy you were talking about probably never had kids

That's too bad, and I'm sorry that guy was so rude. Thankfully, I've never had someone confront me like that. And, thankfully my daughter has slept like a log all except for one night on our camping trips. And it WAS so stressful when she had a rough night. In your situation, I would have done what you did. Apologized and emphasized that you are doing/did everything you could for the noise. Not that I think children need apologizing for, but people are entitled and unpredictable. I'd rather smooth it over than encourage more aggressive behavior from someone. All of that being sad, when we choose sites we try to choose ones that are spaced far out from other sites in case our little one is noisy overnight.

That makes me mad for you. You can't be at a family campground and expect total quiet!! There's always someone partying, now THAT'S annoying lol. He must have never had kids, and if he did I feel bad for his wife 😆 I might come back real snarky with something like, '"oh, I see... so you were the only person in history to never cry when you were a baby? Or you're just expecting my baby to be?!"

Solidarity post - took my daughter camping Saturday night and she cried several times throughout thr night. Took her camping labor day weekend and she cried for almost an hour at 2 am. It is what it is, people can deal, it's a campground, they're not getting that much sleep to begin with. And I don't feel bad, and I plan on camping more!

I'm so sorry you had to experience this! Taking my baby camping for the first time next month. I'm a little nervous and really hope I don't end up in the same situation.

Last time I took my baby camping she was 5 months old and woke up a few times to be fed, which is to be expected. I felt bad for the family 2 spots over with a sick toddler that cried most of the night. I personally thought that they should go home due to the child being so miserable. The child and both parents spent most of the night coughing on top of the screaming. Other than that, it never bothered me. Heck, my man was snoring louder than the screaming.

Commenting in solidarity! My girl is going through the 4 month regression and we’re on a camping trip in Canada right now. She cried so much the first night and it echoed so bad throughout the mountains. I felt awful but thankfully no one said anything. I just keep telling myself babies are humans, they’re allowed to exist in the outdoors, too!

Yeah.. I never figured out who the guy was as the whole conversation was through the tent wall. And the next morning was such a beautiful day and my daughter was in a perfect mood, so I just let it go. We had a great trip despite the encounter 😄 Thanks everybody for the support. I agree that babies have the right to exist and families shouldn't avoid traveling because of slight inconvenience ❤️

@Kitty I agree, I also think he never had kids.. I also used to be annoyed by crying babies before having my own e.g. on a plane, but now when I hear somebody else's baby crying I am so at peace because that's not mine 😄

I had a similar experience camping. My daughter did good all day until the night came. My husband decided to take a shower at the middle of the night and as she is daddy's girl she cried as if I was killing her. I was singing to her, tried to hug her but she was inconsolable. Then my brother in law came and told us that the neighbor from the camping site came to ask if the baby was ok. I told him she is just crying for her dad. I'm trying to calm her down. My sister just came out too and asked my daughter if she wanted a hug and suddenly she calmed down and hug my sister and she rocked her to sleep. I felt so embarrassed because she didn't want me to hug her but she hug my sister and calmed down. The next day I saw the neighbors that where asking but I didn't give them an explanation. I don't know them and why should I give a stranger an explanation. I think next time I will prepare my daughter better on the sequence of events so she knows what to expect.

I’m sorry! It’s so frustrating when people are dicks. I would’ve been irritated as well, and just reading this got me defensive for you lol It’s not your fault nor a problem! obviously! kids cry 🤷🏻‍♀️ it’s bound to happen! And it’s a camp ground, you’re doing nothing wrong…. I had kinda a similar experience on a flight, where unfortunately my daughter was not having any of it and it sucked, and a person behind me stood up and looked over our seat as if we were causing the crying. Its always stressful when your bb is loosing it and there’s people around and you just can’t do anything about it. So f*ck that guy lol Also! I recently saw a tik tok of this girl being like “don’t take your children to public places cause it ruins it for everyone” I was mortified!!!! Some people are just self centered

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