I'm a little bitter about not playing soccer.
Or softball. Or piano. I did take dance lessons, but the name "Klutzy Chrissy" didn't happen by accident.
My parents preferred to send me outside. Even in our Detroit neighborhood, which developed a reputation during the last 30 years of offering a wide assortment of crack houses, my friends and I explored the alleys while making sure to wear shoes as protection from broken bottles.
Ah, nature.
My parents certainly didn't view themselves as the last of a dying breed. But as the National Forum on Children and Nature works to get America's kids back outside, I'm busy forcing my lifetime of outdoor lessons upon my children. There's a sense today that parents need to get their kids involved in organized gatherings. Coupled with the constant connection of technology -- I've actually seen cyclists chatting on their cell phones -- people's free time is no longer their own.
My parents made their career with horses. They were outside, so I was outside. There wasn't any other option. Plus, we didn't have cable so there was no reason to stay at home.
Now I'm patting myself on the back because this summer I'm showing my daughters, who are still too young to be set free into the neighborhood, the wonders of nature. Little things, like a family of ducks feasting on tiny fish in a stream below an underpass. Or stopping the bike to examine a patch of prairie plants.
And yet, I'm still wrought with guilt over the feeling that we're goofing off.
Is it goofing off to take a few minutes to look at a stream? My fellow parents might think so, as they rush from one lesson to the next. And sometimes even I think so -- shouldn't I be in front of the computer or the TV news, learning everything I can about the energy bill?
Like everything else about kids, there's no clear-cut way to parent. Those staying at home to raise children, mostly women deemed uninformed by some, need to work even harder to keep up with the issues of the day.
But it takes time to show kids to the edge of a stream, prepare healthy home-cooked meals, and tend a tiny garden. Maybe it's 12 years of Catholic school, but I've got to agree with the Pope's message of "working less, wanting less, spending less." With a 24-hour news cycle, maybe it also means knowing less.
So I sacrifice some time in front of the news, and as a result I'm semi-uninformed. My lax views on stranger safety will probably seem to endanger my daughters. Some days, the only news I get is from the radio while I make dinner.
I'm teaching my kids about their world. As an adult, I'm sacrificing knowledge for the greater lesson of rediscovering nature with my children.
My only unity with most parents staying home is our shared perception of isolation. But I know there are other outdoor-prone parents out there. I've seen their work.
Coming home from our duck observing, I saw two teenish-looking girls who had stopped their bikes by the stream and were hunched over the water. OK, maybe they were fishing out their Mary Jane pipe from the stream. But I'd like to think they were undertaking the more innocent task of seeing nature.
Ask Umbra on trash, toxics, and tots
Home Economics of the JP Green House, Part 1
Comments
View as Flat
Biodiversivist Posted 12:13 pm
26 Jun 2007
http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2006/10/23/83823/917
http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2005/7/9/181017/2895
In the end, it all comes down to biodiversity. Poison Darts--Protecting the biodiversity of our world
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waterman Posted 7:35 pm
26 Jun 2007
I think the idea that keeping up 24-7 with the news is keeping you informed is a mistake. I have been reading the newspaper everyday for the past 10 years and though it is addictive I don't think it necessarily gives me a better overview than a weekly newspaper or magazine would give me. Watching no television certainly hasn't made a difference (save for the fact that I am not in the know of the latest gossip). News consists by necessity of a mixture of things that are of importance to our world and items that in the long run do not turn out to be so important.
All this just to say, it is OK to leave the news the news. If it is of importance it will get back to you. Much more important things are to be learned in 3D actual reality, by a little stream.
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caniscandida Posted 10:40 pm
26 Jun 2007
<<
It comes down to "working less, wanting less, spending less," thus reducing the impact each person has on the environment, Archbishop Celestino Migliore told participants gathered in Columbus for the second in a series of regional Catholic conversations on climate change April 14. [In the interests of context, the full quote was "In the States this movement is often expressed in terms of so-called voluntary simplicity, that is, a way of life that tends to involve patterns of working less, wanting less and spending less. In other parts of the world, it focuses on a radical criticism and opposition to the current economic and market systems."]
>>
That last bit, about "other parts of the world," sounds rather like liberation theology, which I am glad to see is thriving, in spite of much hierarchical opposition, even in the highest circles.
"Working less" can easily work for those who "want less" and "spend less." Unfortunately, in this country at least, our health care depends on our being employed full-time. That is why we need a system of guaranteed health care for everybody, independent of the contributions of employers per full-time employee. This would be a much happier and culturally stronger country, if we could make a living with an array of part-time employment options.
"Knowing less" is not quite right, Christine, though I know what you are getting at. The happiness of us human beings, the good life for us, depends on our always learning things. The question is, What things? And where should we go to learn them?
Watching the news can indeed become addictive. I started watching CNN during the OJ trial, and I have subsequently turned into a zombie. Well, not quite, but I see the problem. For example, I wish I had never heard of Paris Hilton, and wish I never hear anything about her again. On the other hand, in this household the almost daily showing of photographs of dead servicepeople, who died in Iraq and Afghanistan, at the close of the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, is sacramental.
So, I agree with Waterman.
And there can be no doubt that your efforts with your daughters are the way to go. Hopefully they will not get bitten by turtles -- who would have thought that turtles other than snapping turtles might bite?; so see, I learned something, and am happier for it -- , but even so, apparently BioD's daughters survived.
Similarly, I have no idea what a "Mary Jane pipe" is. Whether it would be really valuable for me to learn what it is, who can say? But I know it would give me a bit of pleasure.
Lucky for BioD that he was not arrested as a negligent parent, for allowing his daughters to play around with dangerous wildlife! : )
Chickens are our cousins!
So are other sensitive animals!
Enough is enough!
No more factory farms!
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Erik Hoffner Posted 1:07 am
27 Jun 2007
Children and Nature Network: this is a national network of regional efforts. C&NN supports and accelerates the growth of a children and nature movement
http://www.cnaturenet.org
See this page in particular: there's a "Leave No Child Inside" chapter in IL and in many other places:
http://www.cnaturenet.org/movement/index.html
Also the Alliance for Childhood promotes policies and practices that support children's healthy development, love of learning, and joy in living:
http://www.allianceforchildhood.net
Erik
The Orion Grassroots Network: 1000+ grassroots groups working for conservation & more
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DogsCatsAndStrays Posted 4:51 am
27 Jun 2007
Mark Twain, Letter to Mrs Foote, Dec. 2, 1887
US humorist, novelist, short story author, & wit (1835 - 1910)
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Christine Gardner Posted 11:09 pm
27 Jun 2007
Erik, thanks for the links. I'll defitely check those out.
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