Top Reasons Why Your Wife/Girlfriend or Family Do Not Go On Trips with You?

[java]

My wife is awesome, we met volunteering for seach and rescue so that was a good start!

but she has had every other weekend during the summer booked for camping for the last 6 months. we pack the car and she tells me where to drive

 

[4x4x4doors]

• Some things are "me" things, some things are "she" things, some are "we" things. We are happy with that. We both need our time.
• She doesn't like the woods -- hypersensitive to poison ivy (can see it, doesn't need to touch it) and there are snakes out there. There's no reason to reason against it, just accept it as fact and move on.
• She's fine to ride though. We have learned whether over highway or byway that we both need to stop and get out and walk around every couple of hours. When the driver stops for gas on the highway, we ALL get out and walk around. Leads to a much more enjoyable trip physically. Also helps to break the "gotta get there right now" mentality to make the trip more of a recharge.
• Cooking in the car, keeping another kitchen/sleeping area clean and functioning has all the downsides of staying home without the tools to make it easy, thus no benefit.
• Loves to ride and walk the beaches though.

 

[Box Rocket]

Seriously? Who's significant other doesn't go on adventures with you?

A few selections of my wife (yeah she's awesome) either in the passenger seat or at the wheel.

...ok, ok. I'm not totally immune either. Biggest problem for me is the bathroom. Still looking for the silver bullet fix for this issue. The PETT is as good an option as I've found so far, but still not ideal.

 

[OnTheTrail]

I was lucky that my ex girlfriend was into going on my trips. I always found a restroom at least once a day that had running water. On the weeklong trips we would stay at a hotel at least a couple times for a shower.

I have tried taking my parents camping. It's not their thing. I think it's the fact that they grew up very poor in a small town in Mexico. Where there there were no paved roads and no electricity for most of their early life. They just don't think it's fun.

 

[want2travel]

Female here...with a boyfriend who LOVES off-roading and camping. I'm willing to go (I like adventure, travel, and camping too), but these have been issues for me at various times:

1. Heat - I HATE being hot. I'm not fun to be around when I'm hot. Take me on a trip in the spring or fall - even winter - and I'd be happy.
2. Too much driving - I hate being in the car. Why do I want to drive 6 hours to arrive somewhere in the middle of the night...just to get up early to drive all day and the next...and then drive 6 more hours home?
3. My schedule - I was working 12 hour days as a teacher (yes, I was usually at school 12 hours a day) and he'd want to go on a weekend trip that required 6 hours of driving each way. I couldn't even fathom it being fun because all I could think of was how exhausted I'd be on Monday.
4. The company - trips with people I know are far more appealing

Here's the deal. If off-roading/camping/whatever is not her thing (i.e. she wouldn't do it if it weren't for you) and you want her to be there, you should do everything in your power to make her comfortable. My BF did this when he wanted me to go shooting with him. He arranged for people to help make me feel comfortable (I had never shot before), he got a gun he knew would be easy for me to use, we went on a chilly fall day (hallelujah!), he didn't make me do the planning or the work, he worked it around my work schedule, etc. And I had a good time! I'd even go again.

He's yet to follow that plan with off-roading, but maybe someday!

 

[Greggk]

my wife, kids, and dogs loving going, just so they can all get away from military life even if just for a short while.

 

[john101477]

Wife Kid and Dog all love to go. If it is a difficult trail that I know is going to be a little to rough, I will usually just go alone or with the dog. My wife puts up with the frequent stops I make for pictures and stuff. I do not mind the hours of driving but she is not a fan of sitting for long periods of time. Luckily the stops I make tend to make up for the driving I do. She knows that any trip with me is going to be slow with lots to see.

 

[EMrider]

Were I a bettin man, I would venture that 99% of the issue is the bathroom. Either a lack of bathroom (remote camping), or a public bathroom (public camping). I know women that wont use a public bathroom, and are thus tethered to home even around town.

There may be additional reasons, and you'd probably need years of analysis to bring it out, but there it is. There are psycho disorders that are gender-specific, this may be one.

My case exactly. My wife takes grooming and being clean seriously. I can let it slide for a few days when in the wild. :wings:

The kids see it my way of course, and thankfully my wife is supportive of a few camping trips per year, but she stays home. Compromise and balance keep it all good.
R

 

[billwilson]

Wife

My wife IS the reason i have a rig

Married less than a year and she say a picture of a Westy

She wanted one, tried the Westy, too small now the SMB

She plans the dates
I plan the location and logistics
She shops and cooks and keeps rig tidy

I drive, set up and take down

She helped design my interior

Life is good

 

[4x4v8]

Doesn't understand why we would sleep in the car when we can afford to stay in a clean hotel. hahaha... I'm okay with that. She doesn't mind the road trips which is great.

She doesn't mind when I want to take a day to go explore on my quad which is nice.

 

[jruba]

Im wondering how are all of those newlyweds are doing after a year or two of marriage ... My wife used to go with me for a couple of years but then after she spend a hot summer night and a cold freezing one , she not too excited about it anymore, she says she can't sleep well in a tent with all the critters and coyote noises ..., I always carry extra stuff when I go with her like portable shower tent , cots instead of air mattresses etc etc , but haven't been able to convince here to go lately , I was thinking to pull the plug on a RTT but Im thinking that it is now more different that a tent ..Now I usually go with my son who is 8 years old now , I started asking her again to go out with us including my 11 year old daughter but I find this hard to happen .. Should i just give up ?

 

[psykokid]

My wife doesn't mind the slow going off road bits. Its the twisty paved bits that you have to take to get to the slow offroad bits that give her fits. She gets quite car sick so that puts a damper on things for her.

 

[keane]

The wife and I dont have work schedules that always line up for when we want to go on trips. And she finally got fedup with missing out on trip so she went out and bought her own truck and had me build it up a bit. So now she can come and meet up with us on trips. So now who ever is off work first heads out and gets camp set up. Even now that we have our first little guy, she loves to camp.

 

[VDBAZFJ]

Holy thread revival man!

My wife likes to camp where there are showers. And bathrooms. And running water. She's also VERY OK with just one night at a time of even that. So, I dont care to set up the RTT with annex for one night. Not sure why I bought that? To be fair...she also doesn't get a lot of time off work either.

My 5 yo son loves to go camping but he is a handful at any time and worse when out of his element, and I'm stressed too much usually when he's along. Plus he gets car sick on any bumpy off road stuff. What is supposed to be relaxing and exploratory turns into a PITA real quick.

So, unless I win the lottery and buy a big diesel truck with a 5th wheel camper, and resign myself to camping in campgrounds...I will be forced to live vicariously through those of you that post your exploits here.

OP: Mark...are you still out there?

 

[grogie]

My wife grew up out west but never camped, which I found surprising! Her dad was a paratrooper in the Army that spent weeks living in the woods with just a backpack, which he hated, so he never took her camping. She's her father's daughter and hates it. Number one as others have said, it's the lack of a modern bathroom which I can understand since I don't have to sit, and I can go longer without a shower (I did last year buy a privacy tent and have a setup for a nice, hot shower).

It's also the bugs, and the boredom in the drive getting there. I try to let her drive, but I'm just more at ease with doing the driving with a lifted Jeep pulling a trailer. She's a fine driver, but limited on experience. She's otherwise awesome and I'm fortunate to have her.

Eventually we'll need to move up to a hard sided camper of some sort... so no more RTT which I just recently bought to no longer sleep on the ground. (Isn't that an improvement enough?!)

I love camping!