To families with small children, a tent is often much more than a refuge from rain, wind and other elements. It can be a fort, a corral, a castle, and outdoor hotel, a bug-free zone, a place for shade. It's also your base of operations whenever you and your family, or others in your party, are "roughing it" for whatever the reason.

Buying the right tent, and learning to set it up quickly and without fuss, will speed up the time spent on the mechanics of establishing your shelter and campsite and allow more time for other duties or interests, or just for rest, something we all don't seem to get enough of these days.

Manufacturers don't necessarily call them family tents. Descriptions are more like "four-person" tent, "five to six person" tent, or "cabin" tent. The term "expedition" tent is used for the higher- priced, four-season tents. Some companies have been making family tents all along, but some of the more hard-core expedition type tent manufacturers have seen fit to make economical family-sized tents as well.

With all tents, whether large or small, there are a number of maintenance "rules of the road" These rules, when followed by tent owners and their traveling companions alike, will prolong the life of a tent and make camping more enjoyable.

Before even opening your tent's stuff bag, find a flat piece of ground to pitch your tent and remove the larger objects like pine cones, rocks or sticks that may be uncomfortable to sleep on. Leave all pine needles, leaves or other ground cover in place. Do not dig a trench around your tent site. Avoid areas with dead trees (that could possibly fall in a storm), dry washes that convert to raging torrents, or delicate alpine meadows. Camp at least 100 feet from water, below high ridges and mountaintops where lightning strikes occur, and away from avalanche paths and game trails.

Use a waterproof ground cloth to protect the floor of your tent from moisture, abrasion and holes. Polyethylene plastic is available at most hardware and garden shops. Nylon tarps can be had to most sporting goods suppliers. Some tent makers are producing "footprints" for their tents. These are coated nylon groundsheets that perform the job of a groundcloth. Stake your tent, even if the weather is clear and you have loaded your tent with gear. This is especially true with dome tents that don't rely on stakes for holding up the tent structure. The important job of tent pegs today is to keep your tent from blowing away. I once had an expensive four-season tent blow halfway over, then abrade itself on decomposed granite. Staking the tent would have saved it from such damage.

Avoid bringing sharp objects, muddy boots, stoves or bears into your tent. To take care of the bear problem, all food should be stored in the campground's "bear box" or hung up in a tree out of bear reach. Soaps and toiletries with scented perfumes should be stored like food. Cooking with chemical stoves in tents is not recommended because of fire danger. Fire treated nylon still melts when exposed to flame. Use vestibules for cooking. Muddy boots cause abrasion to nylon surfaces. Store them outside the tent or in their own plastic bag. If your tent is large enough to house your backpack inside, make sure the frame or other objects you bring inside will not puncture a hole in the floor. Use foam pads or clothes to protect against this occurrence.

Seam seal the rain fly and all floor seams. Coated waterproof nylon keeps the rain out, but needle holes produced in the sewing process let water in. Most good tents come shipped with the seams factory sealed. If not, you will have to paint on the sealer stuff yourself. Wait for a sunny day, set up your tent, and paint away.

Avoid prolonged direct exposure to sunlight. After a long season of camping, it's probably a good idea to come home, pitch your tent, and wash it. Just don't let it air out for the remainder of summer in your backyard. The sun's UV rays will damage and fade nylon and cause nylon coatings to crack and delaminate.

Never leave a wet tent in its stuffsack. You'll be fighting a losing battle against mold and mildew if you forget. As soon as you come home pull out your tent and let it air dry, even if you have to set it up inside the house.

Replace broken poles and tent pegs as soon as possible. I recently returned a set of dome tent poles to the manufacturer because a few joints would no longer mate together correctly. On one trip I had to duck tape the poles together to keep them from puncturing the tent wall in a storm. While the company could have repaired the poles and returned them, they sent me a completely new set of poles free of charge. For added insurance against unwanted skylights or vent holes, pack your poles and stakes separately in their own stuff bag.

Keep the inside of your tent dry so that condensation does not build up. Wet clothes should be either packed away in a waterproof bag or left outside drying in the sun.