I can completely relate to this.The closest I have come to camping is back a few years ago spending couple of nights in the RV that friends owned and that we traveled in to attend a group event in another state. It was kind of fun and interesting, and certainly better than being outdoors in a tent in the middle of the woods somewhere. My family was too "citified," too urban, too suburban, I think, even though my father had been brought up on a farm and probably would've enjoyed camping, felt right at home in the woods and natural environment.
Completely concur with your mother.When I was a child, my mother was adamant: no camping! When she traveled she wanted all the comforts of civilization and that included staying in hotels and eating in restaurants.
For her going camping was abhorrent and as she said, what kind of vacation would that be for HER? My dad more than likely would have enjoyed it and I probably would've too, but she would have been stuck doing a lot of the tasks including of course dealing with meals and all that as well.
As a child, reading (devouring) Enid Blyton (all those children heading off in caravans for adventures, and not just holidays/vacations), bewitched by what I had thought was the romance of such unfettered travel, I recall once idiotically suggesting that our holiday should take this form.
My mother's immediate (and quite clearly and crisply articulated) response was exactly what you write had been expressed by your mother, and I vividly recall that exact rhetorical question: "What kind of holiday would that be for me?" with the explanation that it would involve all of her normal domestic work-load, without the amenities that ameliorated that work-load.
Agreed.Not too many restaurants in the middle of the wooded wilderness....
Or coffee shops, book-shops, pubs, theatres, music stores......