Start ‘em Young!

Whenever my husband and I would hike the trails with a kid in a backpack, there’d often be one person who’d say how wonderful it was that we were starting ‘em young.  Now, as my kids are still fairly young, I can’t say if I’m scaring them with long, forced hikes and “keep it up,” “it’s just around the bend,” or “we’re almost back to the car now!”  But I’d like to say that all the nature is slowly sinking in and someday they’ll prefer a tree to a T.V.

Does this sound about right? 

If I’m to garner from my own experience, I’d say that it is right.  My sister and I were raised with a T.V. allowance only on the weekends and often had even that revoked if we droned on like robots (I believe that was what we were called).  Who wouldn’t want to fill a whole Saturday morning with Saturday morning cartoons though?  I mean, you could map the whole day out till like 2 in the afternoon!  It was the best.  But as much as I grumbled about it as a kid, feeling I was underprivileged, I have to now say that I think my parents did me a great service.  Like an inheritance (perhaps some might call it torture) I’d like to pass it on. 

So, what is the best way to instill a love of sports, nature, and just plain “people time” without being an evil dictator?  Should I never allow games, Wii, Xbox, smart phones, texting, and any other numerous forms of antisocial mechanisms? 

Well, perhaps location is a good foundation to start with.  Bend, Oregon is perhaps one of the best places to working on starting your child out right.  There’s mountain biking, road biking, skiing, snowshoeing, cross country skiing, snowboarding, hiking, climbing, rafting, standup paddle boarding, fishing, running, walking, and many other forms of entertainment which happens without electronics. If a parent could get the child to fall in love with a sport early on, then maybe the other pieces would fall into place.

Repetition seems key as well.  If a T.V. is repeatedly and easily accessible, rather than a bike trail, we creatures of habit will follow what we’re comfortable with.   Forming good habits from early on will help click the off button more easily later on in life when you don’t have so much say in your child’s choices. 

If we parents provide an array of healthy options, leaving out the not-so-desirable options, then the child will pick from what’s available. Here’s a vote for starting ‘em out young!  Being a parent is often a fight of wills.  Hopefully with our own years of wisdom we can will a healthy and happy lifestyle out for our children.

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