Reconnecting Children With the Natural World Written by Jodi Hiland of Happy Trails Family Nature Club Barriers to Outdoor Free-Play There are myriad barriers to children's outdoor free play, and these must be addressed in every corner of society. Times may never be what they once were for children, but we must create a new, balanced reality. Parental Fear One of the biggest reasons children are seen less outdoors is parents' perceived "stranger danger." I say "perceived", because while child abductions do occasionally occur, it is not nearly as often as people believe. The modern media have gone overboard in their reporting of these incidents, and with internet news spreading like wildfire, it is now to the point where we think abductions are happening far more than they are. In fact, most abducted children are taken by someone the child knows, like a family member. And, the number of these hasn't increased since the 1970's (when I was a kid). Of co...
I used to make fun of my Grandparents. My Grandma would tell anyone who asked, “Your Grandpa gets up at 6:30. He takes his walk, gets the newspaper, makes coffee, and works the crossword puzzle. I get up at 8:00. By that time he’s mostly done with the puzzle and have my coffee and toast--just the heel of the bread.” She could lay out their entire day, right down to when she would lay out my Grandpa’s Pj’s. They loved their routine. I, on the other hand, would listen to her story for the seventy-second time and scream to myself in my head that I would never let a routine tie down my life! I will live freely and day-by-day, wherever the wind takes me! Life’s an adventure! And so on and so forth, until I got tired of ...
Dear Mega Media, Just wanted to drop you a quick note of thanks for turning me into a raging lunatic these last few weeks. I honestly feel like I have been walking through a minefield, tiptoeing through my entire life and practically drowning my family in hand sanitizer. I have even have gone as far as giving my children money to hold in every public place we enter with the strict rule that if they touch anything, anything, they will lose the money. Hands-off everything, they keep it. I’m down at least eighteen dollars already. You’ve done a fabulous job scaring the pants off of all of us. Or most of us. Some of us can see through your hype and just change the channel. Of course, every channel that doesn’t contain sporting events, cartoons, or classic TV re-runs has the ticker running across the bottom that spells out in scrolling letters that we’re all going to fall victim to the flu de jour and spend the next two weeks of our lives practically on our death beds and don’t even b...
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