Summer is in full swing in our neck of the woods. The weather has been great, not to hot, not too cold. We have had trips to the beach, a trip to the water park, a trip to a state park for some camping and fishing. And yet, even with all this wonderful weather going on, I find myself having to push my kids outdoors. If I let them, I think they would sit in front of the TV or computer all day long, and luckily, for my own sanity, we have refused to buy a game system, because I am sure that would be on the list as well.
As my husband and I discussed what limits we needed to place on screen time for the summer, he made the comment that he did not remember ever being inside the house in the summer, except for meal time. I don’t have that same shared memory, but I do remember doing a lot of activities outside of my house. I do not remember a lot of time in front of the TV, except for a bowl of cereal while watching the Brady Bunch or Leave it To Beaver. But, as we discussed the fact that our kids, and ourselves should be outside more, I told my husband to look outside. We live in a subdivision with plenty of kids, yet at noon, on a summer day, we did not hear a single kid outside playing. Now later in the day, closer to evening, there were kids and families all over the place, but where were all the kids earlier?
My husband and I are lucky enough, if you consider the relative paycheck, to have our summers off with our children. I am sure that many parents are still working through the summer. But, all these kids can’t be just sitting inside the house all day, can they? Or is it a symptom of the times, that we as parents do not give our kids the freedoms that we once had to roam and explore. We have lots of activities and trips planned this summer. Our kids will be outside, a lot. But, it just surprises me how hard it is to get them out, to get them moving and doing things, together, with friends, alone, whatever.
Today, I took charge and we picked up and went to the lakeshore. Tomorrow we have a trip to the waterpark. But, does it always have to be me making plans to get the kids moving? I know with my youngest, who just turned three, it is my job to supervise and often organize, but my nine and thirteen year old should be more than able to direct their own fun. Whatever happened to kids creating their own play? Or is this just something that we like to memorialize and was never a reality?
What do you do to encourage your children to get outside and play?
Photo graciously provided by _Massimo_, through a Creative Commons license, some rights reserved
3 responses so far ↓
AmyL // Jun 25, 2008 at 4:00 pm
I keep an eye on the screen time. This is our first full week at home since school ended (boys went camping last week), so there’s been a good deal of electronic activity suddenly. Boys who didn’t turn on the television before 3pm are now watching shows with breakfast. It freaks me out a bit, I have to admit.
Part of this is a novelty thing. I’ve noticed that if I don’t make a huge deal of it they get bored and find other things to do. So as long as no one is getting grumpy-a classic sign of too much screentime here-I’m keeping quiet.
In the meantime, I keep them busy with the occasional project around the house and errands to town. We have worked hard to make the yard a fun place, with swings and a slide and sandbox. This year’s addition was a teeter totter, and the summer pool is well loved. We have one of the temporary ones that you just fill up and then maintain. The garage is stocked with bikes and various bits of sports equipment that we’ve picked up over the years and they do use it. Not always in the manner intended, but creative is good. We’ve also added a monthly volunteer obligation that the boys are learning to love.
I’ve pledged to spend time at the beach and to take them a few places, but I’m also interested in them having downtime and the opportunity to entertain themselves. Just today The Mercenary spent hours on a really great Lego creation of which he’s very proud.
Chris // Jun 26, 2008 at 6:37 am
So far, anyway, all I have to do is open the back door and my kids are outside, but mine are just 2 and 5. We have a large, fenced backyard and so they are content to play out there for hours. Since we finally began having consistently warm weather here in Portland (it doesn’t get summer-y here until the official start of summer, usually), the new expectation is that I serve breakfast and lunch outside. Late in the afternoon, they will sometimes come in and want to watch TV, but mostly they are out until dinner time.
What does concern me is that there aren’t many other kids outside. Growing up, the kids in my neighborhood had a *daily* kickball game in the street, that only ended when we were all called home for dinner. We owned the neighborhood. We owned the woods and the creek. We ran and packs and there was such safety in this that our children, now isolated from one another in their respective living rooms, have been denied.
One of my antidotes to this situation has been to enroll our oldest (and as soon as he’s old enough, our toddler) in “outdoor preschool.” Once a week, she spends a morning outdoors, rain or shine, with a couple experienced naturalist, exploring a wildlife refuge in the city. We’re homeschoolers and I expect to continue this program for as long as possible (they offer day-long classes for older kids). It seems crazy to have to pay someone to get my kids outside with other kids, but the consequences of not doing so seem rather dire to me, as Robert Michael Pyle writes, “What is the extinction of the condor to the child who has never known a wren?” How can we expect our children to care about preserving the natural world if they don’t even care to spend time in their own backyards?
Nan // Jun 27, 2008 at 5:50 am
I go “OUT! EVERYBODY OUT! AND DONT COME BACK TILL YOU’RE HUNGRY!!” But I have a horde of boys in the summer and six acres of “back yard”, so that might not work as well for everyone.
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