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One of the best things about the RV community is how friendly and supportive most people are. However, that’s precisely what pushed one woman’s buttons.
She was upset enough to turn to Facebook to share her frustrations with others. However, a majority of commenters weren’t on her side.
What was the issue, and how can you avoid finding yourself in the same situation?
Let’s look and see!
Full-Time RVer Upset with Fellow Campers
A woman who has been a full-time RVer for six years with her husband complained on Facebook recently.
She complained that she and her husband often get offered help while backing into a campsite. She said she was frustrated not only by the offers for assistance but also by the words of advice and criticism.
However, this is a common situation that many RVers encounter, whether new or have been doing it for years.
As we mentioned, the RV community is generally very friendly and willing to lend a helping hand. However, this woman appears to be unhappy to receive it.
Things Didn’t Go as Planned for Her
We’re unsure what she expected for a response, but the post generated over 200 comments and 150 reactions. Unfortunately for her, most of the comments weren’t in her favor.
Most responses encouraged her to decline the help and not take it personally. Many even stated they were often happy and not too proud to receive help when needed.
While the woman may have been looking to vent, it didn’t cast her in a very good light. Many fellow members of the community were quick to point this out to her. While she claims she was “over it” in a reply to a commenter, it didn’t sound like she was.
The post’s author later came back and stated that her post needed further clarity. She said the person offering her help had little experience, and the spot they were backing into was tricky.
However, it shows that venting to Facebook may not be the best option, especially if you’re not including all the information.
Is Backing an RV into a Campsite Hard?
Backing an RV into a campsite can be tricky, especially if you’re inexperienced with trailers or RVs. However, it can become easier the more you can do it.
This is one of the reasons why we heavily encourage RVers to practice maneuvering in an empty parking lot. These spaces are more forgiving and provide an excellent opportunity to learn.
Unfortunately, some campsites can pose a bigger challenge than others. As the woman complaining to Facebook later mentioned, their campsite was crammed between two park models and had some poorly placed trees.
Backing up an RV into a campsite requires communication between the driver and anyone spotting them to avoid serious issues.
Pro Tip: Read these 5 anxiety-reducing tips to help back your RV into a driveway.
How to Reject Offer for Help Respectfully
Just because someone offers to help doesn’t mean you have to accept the offer. However, you don’t have to be a jerk when rejecting the act of kindness.
Here are some tips for respectfully rejecting someone’s attempt to help in a campground.
Express Gratitude
One of the most important things you should do when rejecting help is to express gratitude to the individual offering to help. They were most likely trying to be friendly and considerate by offering to help.
Don’t take it personally or get offended; thank them for offering before stating that you’re all set.
The individual could have easily sat back in their camping chair and watched you try to maneuver into your spot. However, they were kind enough to extend a helping hand. The least you can do is to be thankful that they were kind.
Be Polite
In addition to expressing gratitude, it’s also vital that you’re kind in your rejection. While you don’t have to accept every offer for help, you don’t have to be rude.
If you are rude, you may make enemies with your camping neighbors before setting up your campsite. Depending on how long you’ll be there, this can set your entire trip up for failure.
Being polite includes expressing gratitude for the help, even if you don’t mean it. Be a decent human being and treat them respectfully.
The world needs more people to be kind to one another and offer help when they see a need. A bad or rude attitude can ruin the other person’s day and cause them to think twice about offering help to others in the future.
Maintain Positivity
Another critical thing to do when rejecting help is to maintain a positive attitude. You can do this by letting them know that you don’t need help now, but you’ll let them know if you do. This can help avoid making things awkward or allow you to give it a try without their help.
Maintaining a positive attitude with them means leaving the door open for help should you need the help. Some sites may appear easy, but issues can present themselves once you start maneuvering into them.
If you keep things positive, they’ll be less likely to abandon you in your time of need.
Use Humor
Humor can be the best medicine for an awkward situation. However, be careful using sarcasm, as it can be challenging for strangers to pick up on without knowing your personality.
Sarcasm can come off as arrogance or rudeness in many situations, which isn’t what you want if you end up needing their assistance.
A joke or two can be a great way to lighten the mood and keep things positive. However, don’t force it.
Know when to be serious and when it’s time to goof around.
Keep in Mind: Sit around the campfire and pull out the old dad jokes with these RV and camper van jokes!
Be Firm But Kind
Some people will be very persistent when it comes to offering help. In these situations, you must be firm but kind when declining. Too many individuals around the scene can get chaotic and increase the odds of miscommunication between the driver and the spotter.
There has been a time or two where we’ve had to stop in the middle of backing into a site because a neighbor got in the way. While trying to be helpful, they ended up causing more harm than good.
In these situations, you must be firm and confident when rejecting their offer to help. You can politely say, “I appreciate the offer; however, I (we) have been doing this for years and have a system that works for us in place, and don’t want to disrupt that.”
Accept or Decline Help from Fellow Campers Without the Drama
Whether you accept or decline help from fellow campers is entirely up to you. However, if you respectfully reject their offers, you can avoid the drama.
As the poster discovered, there’s a way to decline help and not be rude. Hopefully, she’ll learn from this experience and handle situations better.
I had to laugh while reading this article. Over the many years of pulling a 26 foot trailer, my wife & I have had many experiences with people trying to help us while I was backing our trailer into either a tricky camping site, or often, not so tricky. I laugh because this article reminded me of a time that I had 6 good old boys, who had obviously been putting down a fair amount of beer, decide to help me back my trailer in. While I appreciated the help, I had 6 people, plus my wife, all giving me different directions. As you can imagine, it wasn’t pretty!!
Two things I learned. Get a back-up camera. The second was getting a pair of walkie talkies. I now role up the windows so I don’t hear all the well intentioned advice & let my wife filter all that advice & relay it through the walkie talkies.
This has helped enormously, while not hurting anyone’s feelings. After the above episode, our neighbors invited us to sit with them & we helped them down a few more beers. Mission accomplished!!
We had a couple come over while my husband & I were struggling to erect a brand new screen tent…the woman said “we thought we should come over before there’s a divorce”. They were so pleasant & it turns out that the tent was actually broken. What was nice was they waited and watched (there were very few trees) until they thought it was getting to a critical stage before kindly asking if they could help. I think they disrupted my extremely frustrated husband from escalating.
I’m like that, wait and see & just offer if it is obvious assistance is needed. I look forward to see how many people want to help us when we first pull into a campground with our first large trailer😂. We had a tent trailer years ago so this 30’ 5wheel is substantially larger!