News : Don’t Make Them, Take Them

By Zach Parmater, Conservation Tech Everyone is always talking about the amount of time kids spend on electronics this day and age. Just take the devices away and shoo your children outside. Tell them to get dirty and to go discover nature. While this is a very viable option to get your children interested in the outdoors, sometimes I feel it can create even more of an issue. You take the one thing away from them they want to be playing with and tell them they have to go outside. This is very easily perceived as a punishment in my eyes. What is one of the first things we take from our children when they misbehave? It’s their electronic device, isn’t it? Whether it’s a cellphone, iPod, iPad, PlayStation, Xbox or simply TV, we take them away to show some sense of control over a bad behavior or lack of motivation to accomplish simple tasks. So, if we confiscate these devices and say go outside and play, our children could subconsciously be perceiving that as a punishment and end up disliking the outdoors even more. I think it’s fair to say that our children don’t dislike the outdoors, but don’t have an understanding or an appreciation for it. Growing up I had three brothers fairly close in age that I could explore the outdoors with. I grew up in an era where kids felt safe from evil - we ran around until we heard Ma or Pa holler and say it was time to come home. We were fortunate enough to grow up in a part of town that had a few acres of timber and a creek full of all kinds of wild critters in our backyard. I should make it clear that my parents showed my siblings and I a lot of things in nature, always took us fishing and Dad took us hunting. I don’t ever remember my parents telling us it was time to go outside, it was always time to come inside. As I was reaching adulthood, I would hear other parents and teachers saying, “Kids these days, all they want is a computer or a TV, we’ve got to get them outside more.” What’s the solution? If I would have known then what I know now, I would have told them, “don’t make them, take them.” Maybe someone else out there has already laid claim to that saying; if so I’ll apologize now and tip my hat to you. Because I believe it is so very true. Show them the outdoors, get out there with them and experience it together. Do something to make them feel a sense of accomplishment in the outdoors. One of my favorite things to do with my son is picking wild black raspberries and making a batch of homemade pie crust. The satisfaction of creating a dessert from wild edibles that my son and I gathered together while enjoying the outdoors makes the pie so much more than just a dessert. It was watching the insects scurry about their busy lives. The beautiful songs from countless species of birds flying from tree to tree sometimes landing just a few feet from you, almost like they’re saying, “This is my patch, what are you doing here?” The large snake that startled me and slithered off under an old log never to be seen again. With all the good, there comes some bad; while picking wild berries the mosquitos and gnats come out in droves, sometimes it seems like there are enough to carry you away. Without bug spray on, it almost becomes a test of mental fortitude. However, we always push on to collect enough berries to create our dessert. I can’t imagine a time before our manmade products for keeping the bugs at bay. It’s hard not to think of the Man upstairs and His idea of making us suffer temporarily for something oh so sweet. Life has become so easy, so to speak. Most people don’t struggle to survive. Food is just a few blocks away at the store. Anything you could possibly want, all you need is money. We’ve become disconnected from the most important things in life. Food, water and shelter. Once these things were fought for. People had to spend most of their day and most of their lives fighting for these staples. Now we take them for granted. I challenge you to take a minute, stop and think about how easy the essentials are to come by these days. The meat you eat, somehow easier to eat when you don’t think about someone else killing and preparing the animal. Hunt an animal, watch it die, clean it, and I guarantee you will have a new-found appreciation for the meat you prepare to feed your family. Or the plants gathered for sustenance to keep you and yours healthy. Grow it yourself, experience the things that make it frustrating. Animals getting into the garden, insects thinking it’s ok to munch on the greens you were planning on eating for dinner yourself. Nature is a wonderful thing at times, at others it seems as though it’s completely against you. Finding a balance and understanding the chain of events that must occur to keep us fed and alive is important. Gathering wild edibles or hunting your own meat to feed your family can and will make you and your children appreciate it even more. Hunting isn’t for everyone, I understand that, but tending a garden, scavenging for wild edibles, or going for a hike and learning about nature can excite kids and give them a feeling of accomplishment. So, the next time you think about telling your kids to go outside, don’t make them, take them. -The nature of Things