Written by Jess; Founder & Owner of Home Farm

Helping busy London parents make the most of their family time

When my Home Farm Glamping journey began, I was fresh from a law career in the City, ploughing all of my energy into my exciting new venture. My aim was to build somewhere that frazzled Londoners could come to relax and unwind, and my imagined guests all looked like me as I was then: single, no children, able to hop on a tube for a night away whenever they felt like it!  I assumed that families only went on long holidays, packing up their entire house and decamping for two week stays abroad or places in the UK at least a few hours’ drive away. However, as a mum myself now, I’ve realised just how important (if not more!) a short but restful family getaway can be.

Fun family breaks near London

Our glamping site has now been up and running a number of years, and whilst we do indeed welcome lots of couples, groups of friends and other guests who fit into my previously-imagined mould, our popularity with families has also grown rapidly from the start.

And that popularity is not at all surprising. As a mother myself, living in North West London, I’ve learnt that the 30 minutes it takes to drive to Home Farm is plenty of time to be in a car with a toddler. My son Fred can deal with a maximum of 45 minutes before his determination to escape from his car seat and get moving turns into extremely loud and very distracting shouting! As far as I can tell, every additional hour spent in a car with small children takes about a year off your life.

Your first family-friendly glamping stop outside London

I never thought I would have children in London. As I’ve mentioned in a previous blog, my own childhood was spent roaming free in the countryside, never needing a TV (I didn’t watch anything except the Grand National once a year until I was about 8), and being safe to have my own adventures.

Twenty months into being a parent, with a husband who works in central London in a job that doesn’t easily lend itself to a daily commute, I have accepted that we will be living in London for the foreseeable future. My main aim now is to make sure that my son gets to experience the same happy feeling of being free to roam as I did. 

Outdoor adventures in the countryside

Even ten years ago people were aware that their children’s childhoods would be different from their own. An article published in the Telegraph in 2010 entitled “Childhood Memories No Longer Involve the Countryside” made the point that very few children now get the opportunity to climb trees or sit quietly making daisy chains. Their childhood memories will be significantly different from those of the generation 20 years older than them.

For all parents, and London parents in particular, our children are constrained because urban environments are scary places in which to parent. There is traffic, hard pavements, pollution, dust, litter, and other people. London children very rarely play by themselves; we often give them scooters/ screens/ toys and constant stimulation because there is far less space and therefore far less scope for them to use their imagination. And so constant stimulation becomes what they are used to.

Even the most relaxed parent can’t take a child to a park and say “off you go, come back when you’re hungry” and just leave them to it. However hard we try to stand back we have to stay close, and this inevitably constrains our children’s natural ability to create worlds and spaces for themselves in their surroundings.  

We all want our children to have outdoor adventures, to play and explore the countryside, but with many parents working full-time no-one wants to spend three hours of their precious free time on the A303 getting increasingly hot, bothered and frustrated. They also don’t want to risk spending a week in a tent only to realise that camping isn’t their thing.

In a recent study, 87% of kids who camp say camping in the countryside makes them feel really happy. While 79% of kids who have never camped said they would like to! But if you ask most parents who are knackered by the end of the week whether they want to spend their weekend wrestling with a tent and trying to boil a kettle on a campfire it is easy to see why the appeal isn’t always there.

Offering short stays and flexibility

Our family guests tell us that a flexible stay at Home Farm Glamping allows them to take regular short breaks to easily accessible countryside. Who wouldn’t want to take advantage of a spell of sunshine, just grab bare essentials and head off spontaneously for a couple of days in the fresh air? 

At Home Farm we have tried to create that place, within easy reach of London. We have used our own experiences of busy working lives and wrestling small children to make sure we have done the hard work for you and you can make the most of your time with your family.

London has some fantastic green spaces, but we all know a park is not the same as the countryside. Proper countryside is usually assumed to be a long journey away, and the green belt around London is often forgotten or overlooked, but in reality Hertfordshire has some amazing pockets of countryside that can easily be reached before the family travel tantrums can even start.

With twelve well-spaced tents and yurts, six separate bathrooms and 100 acres of historic park and farmland, 50 acres of woodland and our own private lake, we're very well placed to offer you a family-friendly outdoor escape. 

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The Gift of Glamping

If you know someone who would appreciate a family getaway near London, why not give them something to look forward to with our new online Gift Vouchers. They’re valid for 18 months and you can buy a variety of different amounts.