How a $65 Camp Chair Has Made Me a Better Parent—and Person

If you’re an active, outdoorsy adult with children, there’s a solid chance you spend a good amount of time as a doting spectator of youth sports. (The offspring of active people tend to be active young people.) And if you’re an adventurer of any sort, you know that conserving energy is key to success. (If someone in your expedition needs to stop for a bathroom break, for example, you lie down on the ground and put your feet up.) So when you find something that helps maximize both, like the Crazy Creek Hex 2.0 Original Chair, which I dropped $65 on at my local REI store last summer, you get a bit obsessed.

I’ve been a soccer mom for years. I used to awkwardly lug a heavy but comfortable aluminum-framed camp chair and a large bag of stuff across giant sports complexes to the sidelines of a game. The big seat kept me happy during the games, but I always arrived at the field somewhat exasperated.

As a parent to a new high schooler as of last year, I now find myself sitting in the bleachers of high school track meets, football games, and other sports where kids—my own or other peoples’—are out there giving it their all and becoming young adults in like, a John Hughes-movie sort of way. I’ve realized that I freaking love high school sports—but I hate being uncomfortable on bleachers that lack a backrest, are often too cold or too hot and always too hard.

Last summer, I decided it was time to ditch my inconvenient soccer mom chair for a do-it-all seat. I wanted a lightweight, super-portable chair I could throw in my tote bag and easily carry across seven soccer fields. I wanted something incognito that I could take into a stadium and not embarrass my teenager. I craved padding and a backrest while I waited for soccer practices to end so I could  sit outside of my car and work comfortably on my laptop. My research led me to the Crazy Creek Hex 2.0 Original Chair.

I used to think that Crazy Creek chairs were reserved for hippies who insisted on being closer to the earth than those sitting in off-the-ground camp chairs. If you own a Crazy Creek, you’re also great at hacky sack and wear tie-dye t-shirts. You whip out a foldable Crazy Creek at a group campsite, and you’re instantly telling stories of rock climbing at Camp 4 in the ‘70s. Although I have hippie tendencies, I had never owned a Crazy Creek chair myself.

What Crazy Creek chairs have that the majority of other camp chairs don’t is portability—you can’t put a large aluminum-framed chair in a tote bag or tuck one under your arm. What the Hex 2.0 has over the Crazy Creek Original Chair is the ability to roll up to the size of an extra-long Sunday newspaper instead of simply folding in half.  The Hex 2.0 is also lighter than the original, weighing in at 1 lb 4.8 oz (vs. the 1 lb 10 oz of the original). The slight cushioning—8mm high-density cored EVA closed-cell foam—is enough to turn a hard, cold bleacher into a padded seat with a back. An inner surface of breathable coated ripstop nylon stays cool when I’m hot, and the outer shell of a thicker coated ripstop nylon lets me sit on damp grass and assures me this thing will endure my abuse. (It has so far.)

Since buying this chair, I’ve used it in ways I didn’t anticipate—and love it even more. After a run in a drizzle during one of my son’s soccer practices, I had work to do. I flattened the seats in my Subaru and crawled into the back with my dog, leaving the hatch open. (I’m not ashamed to be kind of a dirtbag.) I opened up my Crazy Creek Hex 2.0 Chair and fired up my laptop. An hour later, I had a finished story and a happy dog—but not a sore back.

At an ultramarathon where I paced a friend through 14 miles at night, I opened up the chair all the way to lay flat, and used it as a minimalist sleeping pad. The cushioning is slight, but there was no inflating to be done and the chair softened—even if just a little bit—the back of a Chevy Suburban where I took a little catnap.

Having this chair at the ready for spectating sports has made me more comfortable, which puts me in a better mood all-around—a win for me and everyone in my family. This stealthy, simple piece of gear allows me to conserve my energy anywhere I am, whether I’m cheering for a goal, comparing the football field to the one in the final scene of “The Breakfast Club,” or resting up before a mountain adventure. It’s like a secret weapon for life. And by saving time and energy, the chair adds balance to my day-to-day. A little adventure mixed in with a lot of being a doting sporting mom makes me a better version of myself, which, again, is good for everyone around me.