A few weeks ago, when my office announced the annual fall camping trip at the company park, Ken and I thought we’d give it a try. Three hundred campers (fellow employees and family members) signed up for the event. So Ken and I chucked our tent and a couple of sleeping bags into the minivan and started off to the park. Did I forget to mention that we were also brining along three children – Eric (6 ½), Emily (3 ½) and Beth (1 ½ )?
We arrived at the park, selected a site and began the task of pitching our tent. Now, normally, pitching a tent should be an easy task. Not so when you are receiving help from a toddler and a three year old. So, with a nod of the head from Ken, I knew it was time to move to the zone defense.
Parents with more than two children know what I’m talking about. Way, way long ago, we had only one child. Poor Eric, he didn’t stand a chance. We had him outnumbered and regularly double teamed him. Whether he was trying to make a break for the street, pick chewing gum out of the garbage or lick the cat, Mom or Dad would be on it like water on a duck. For a while our oldest thought his name was "Eric No."
A few years later, with the arrival of Emily, we were forced to revise the playbook. It was time to move to man to man coverage. This meant that while one parent combs the sand out of Emily’s hair, the other must distract Eric away from trying to climb the curtains. While we missed the days when tag team parenting meant we could each enjoy a short break on the sidelines now and then, we generally felt that all of the bases were covered. Then, a few years later when Beth was born, we were forced to chuck out the offensive plays completely and focus primarily on the zone defense.
For the uninitiated, here’s how the zone defense works. Instead of focusing your attention on any single child, each parent gets a territory to cover. Whatever children wander into your territory are your responsibility. An example might be bed time. If Mom and the oldest child are at the table doing home work, that’s her zone. Everyone upstairs getting a bath, brushing teeth or putting on jammies is in Dad’s zone. If the baby wanders downstairs to check out the action, she now becomes part of Mom’s zone.
Sometimes the zone means one parent must defend against all three of other team’s players. So if Dad’s cooking dinner and needs to banish youngsters to keep them from the hot oven, all three become part of Mom’s zone. At these times, a prevent defense is strongly recommended (as in prevent them from destroying the house until Dad is done cooking).
Back at the camp site, Mom and Dad were in the zone. Ken was assigned to construction duty. So, while Ken worked on placing all of the tent poles in the correct places, I hustled the kids out of the way. Ken had wisely elected to pitch our tent near a prime entertainment source. With a one, two, three, break, I trouped the team over to the playground.
Once the poles were in position, Ken needed my help again. Here’s where things could get tricky. But handling tricky situations is my forte and I was ready to go the distanc. So I checked our playbook for a good maneuver. Luckily, Eric’s friend Jackson had joined the campout with his parents which meant I could safely let Eric continue to play on the slides.
I still needed to use all my grit to handle the girls. So I reached deep and pulled out that one special play that is guaranteed to grab them – snack time. Then, after the little ones had huddled up to munch out on graham crackers, I was able to take a time out to help Ken. Soon the tent was up.
I’m not sure how Ken and I develop our playbook. I guess it wrote itself after a few years of practice. Still we’re lucky to have it. More than that, we’re lucky we have each other.
And in case your wondering, the camping trip rocked. The weather was perfect – cool and crisp. The kids enjoyed snuggling in their sleeping bags and sleeping outside as a family. And we all had a great time being together.
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