Elodes

Can you imagine that we just brought 8 families and their kids from 4 different countries together to a Spanish villa for a week and had a blast? We only knew each other from Twitter before. It was so much better than vacationing just with our kids. Nothing has ever kept my children entertained like a critical mass of other kids to swarm around with and do their kids stuff together. There's no playground, water park, toy, or TV show that could possibly compare to this. At TribeCamp we did not even have a playground, but it turned out not to be necessary. A swimming pool and other kids around was enough to keep everyone occupied most of the time, with the older ones leading the young. There were 13 kids, the youngest baby turned one on the last day, which we celebrated with baking cake and throwing a dance party. The oldest two were both 11. Toddlers played with their toy trucks right alongside the tweens painting their Warhammer figurines. Everyone looked up to the slightly older kids, and gently guided the slightly younger ones, teaching them whatever they were doing. My children are not yet fluent in English, and in the beginning navigating the social dynamics was a bit of a challenge. What helped them was going on day trips in smaller groups, and helping out babies and toddlers whose play is mostly nonverbal. With other moms we looked for things they could do together with everyone else, like going on a treasure hunt, or starting a pillow fight. Eventually my kids did become a part of the swarm, just before we had to wrap up and leave. Perhaps some bonding activities early on could have helped them fully belong to the group earlier. We all took turns in the kitchen, prepping food and cleaning up. It was more smooth than I expected, the hosts had prepared us some scalable and easy to follow recipes and skillfully stocked the pantry. Most of the time kids were not adventurous enough to try whatever we were eating and stuck with just plain pasta or rice with ketchup. Nobody seemed to be bothered much by this. Any nutrients that they were lacking, they probably made up for in milk. We ran out of our milk supply already on the second morning, and had to restock it several times through the week. Most other parents were my long time twitter mutuals, so I was not surprised that we had a lot in common. My husband, on the other hand, was somewhat surprised that he did. According to him, parents are much more grounded than the usual spiritual crowd that I tend to hang out with. Even when talking about AI and somewhat esoteric stuff, the conversations were much more rooted in reality. My favorite part of this trip were activities proposed and led by older kids. One of them suggested we tie dye some clothes together. Even though we did not manage to buy appropriate t-shirts on time, tie dye socks came out pretty interesting too. Another kid taught all of us adults how to draw and shade a dragon, which we've already practiced again back at home. It was so amazing to catch a glimpse of their world, what they were passionate about, and see what my kids might become in a few years from now. Before the camp began, I dreamed of leaving the property better than we found it, maybe building a treehouse somewhere so that future guests could use it. Near the end I was just hoping that we don't leave it much worse. Modeling clay and tie dye stains turned out to be quite difficult to remove from surfaces, and all the sidewalk chalk we bought got broken into a million pieces that we kept finding everywhere. I wish I were more skilled at giving children creative freedom while keeping their messes contained, because moving all of the dirty play outdoors does not seem to be nearly enough. Several people told me this week was the most relaxed they've been in years, with so many other children for their kids to play with, and so many other adults to lend a helping hand. Personally, I might have felt too responsible for how everything was going to fully relax. But I did have a fantastic time, and I'd love to do it again next year, ideally with some teenagers, young adults, and elders mixed in. Parenting young children is such a short stage in the life of a family. There is so much we could learn and benefit from all these other groups. Many thanks to everyone who made it possible, to @RichDecibels and @LombardoNati who trusted us with their home, to @marinwaves who managed the kitchen logistics, @grin_io who did the spreadsheet magic, and @babieswithb who could not be there with us but inspired us in so many ways on how we could make this experience better for the tiniest people. I hope there will be many more TribeCamps to come, on many different continents, so that all of us can hang out together and recharge and let our children run around freely and find new friends from all around the world.