That's me, parent extraordinaire, attempting a deep bonding moment with my pre-teen daughter.

I was just following the advice of Stanford University professor Carol Dweck in her book, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success.

She makes the case that intelligence can be developed through effort and education. We parents can foster this by, among other things, sitting around the dinner table and talking about mistakes and what has been learned from them.

So when last Sunday afternoon found me, my husband and two kids driving to a family dinner, I decided to take advantage of my children being trapped in a fast moving mini van and gave her theory a test.

"So kids, Mom has a question. Tell me about your biggest failures."

Silence.

I swiveled around to see that they were both listening to their iPods and hadn't heard a word I said.

I motioned for them to remove the ear buds and repeated my request.

My eldest daughter threw me one of those incredulous looks that teenagers do so well and informed me that if I was going to keep asking lame questions like that she was going to stay connected to her iPod for the rest of her life.

Now I love my daughter and I wasn't prepared to give up so easily. Thinking quickly, I tried another tact.

"How about I start. I'll tell you a recent failure of mine."

"This could take a while," quipped my husband.

Reminding him that it was his turn next, I continued.

"Mom has a book club meeting tomorrow night and I'm on page seven of a 900 page book. I think it's safe to assume that I've failed at finishing this book. Now, how should I handle this?"

They began to get interested. Thinking for a moment, my youngest leaned forward and in her most serious voice directed me to, "Lie mommy."

The older and wiser one was more crafty. "Don't say anything unless you're asked. And if they do ask you something, just nod your head and say, 'It didn't resonate with me' They'll never know."

Momentarily distracted by their deceitful yet excellent suggestions, it took me a few minutes to realize that my bonding and life-skill training moment had morphed into a discussion on how best to trick The Happy Bookers. (By the way, if anyone from my book club is reading this, I did finish the book, really, it just didn't resonate with me.)

I was brought back to the present moment by the sound of my family competing with each other to come up with the best tale of Mom's failures.

"Remember the time Mom asked her hairdresser for "a little change" and came home with bright orange hair?"

"Remember the time Mom was going to start a craft business but after three months had only produced three scarves and the sleeve of a sweater?"

As the peels of laughter rang through the car, I said a silent thank you to Dr. Dweck. Her technique didn't work exactly as I had envisioned it but we were, nevertheless having a bonding moment.

Karen is an urbanmoms.ca member, a freelance writer and the publisher of a website for Toronto women 40+ - The Best Kept Secret

It was the next morning that things went sour. After awakening at 7:00 am (why don't children sleep late when they go to bed late?!) we noticed a slightly menacing sky overhead. Best to get the tarp up over our picnic table and cooking area.  By the time we had it up, the downpour began.

Perhaps a passing shower, we thought. By 10:00 am, we realized it wasn't clearing and remembered there was a children's activity (Wiggly Worms!) taking place at the Visitor's Centre. We threw the kids into the van as quickly as possible and drove over to the Centre. They enjoyed about an hour of fun there and then we were back at the soggy site to determine next steps as the rain continued.

It was decided we'd take a drive into the nearby town for lunch and explore a bit. Well, tough to explore in the pouring rain so we found a pub to hunker down in for some fish and chips. By the time we made it back to the site, the rain was coming down even harder, with a few thunder claps to boot.

We gave it one last chance and drove to the Park Office to check on the forecast. Rain, rain and more rain. Oh, and a thunderstorm, too. Looks like Mother Nature was not on our side this weekend. Daddy, being the outdoor enthusiast he is, said we should stay and try to make the best of it. The rest of us, however, thought otherwise. There's no playing cards with a toddler and baby for 8 hours in a cold tent! What planet was he from?!

With disappointment, mostly on Daddy's part, we began packing up. Of course, the mood (or rather, *my* mood) turned quickly to frustration inside the tent as entertaining three small children in a 10 X 13 enclosure for 1.5 hours isn't easy, especially as you are trying to pack up. Between Suvi complaining that her Leapster wasn't working right (yes, I brought the Leapster to camp for her...so sue me), Max spreading mud all over the floor and turning off Suvi's Leapster, to Finnegan attempting to put teeny little puncture holes in every wall of the tent with his toys, it was a long, long 1.5 hours in that tent.

Once we had everything except the tent into the van, it was time to throw the kids in and put on a movie to keep their minds off how cold and damp and miserable they were. I had to keep Finnegan fed and occupied as he was not at all interested in the movie. He climbed around the front seats of the van, throwing food at me and occasionally turning off the movie for the other two (resulting in serious loud complaining until it resumed) or putting the gear shift into neutral. Why couldn't he just nap all day, for goodness sake!

After an hour in the van, Daddy finished loading the tent and other equipment into the back and, drenched and exhausted, sat himself in the front seat ready to get on our way. "We should have just stayed," he said. I'll let you imagine what my response was.

Cynthia is an urbanmoms.ca member and also a blogger in her own right. Share your feedback (and maybe your own camping horror stories!) below, in comments.