Today everyone talks about how kids sit indoors with their ipads, play station and phones. Heck, there are even memes about how we had great lives but we forgot to look up. What if we looked at this differently….what if we as parents admitted that as kids an electronic device was a pretty easy babysitter while we were busy.
This Christmas find something that you can give your children that lasts a lifetime. Nick and I gave our boys fat bikes four years ago. They have ripped up all kinds of snow and dirt on those fatboys since then. Those were the bikes that started them having their own bikes. They were also the bikes that taught them if you don’t come home after a muddy ride and clean your chain you may very well be walking next time.
Give your children the great out doors….It is already there for you. You will find a group of people that maybe you did not even know existed before.
Teach your children that nature is an adventure and that they can take it on a little at a time or dive right in. Take them camping, hiking, biking or just exploring. There are races that will embrace this very ethos if you like competing against yourself and others. Personally, for my boys, having a competition was the best motivation that there was.
In the last four years since the boys unwrapped their fatties many things have changed. The one thing that is very constant in that period of time is…..If we are feeling detached from our children we head out the door to the great outdoors.
We have given them a gift of exploration that will never go away, never get old or never remain the same. Like life, the great outdoors, is constantly changing.
It needs noted that the equipment doesn’t have to be the best, fastest or most expensive. Buy what works for your family, rent a bike, wear what is in the closet…don’t let that stop you from going outside! Go have fun!!
I’ve been asked several times this holiday season what is the best gift I can give my child……my answer is always the same. “Give them the love of the outdoors. That won’t happen by opening the door and shooing them outside though. Go spend time with them. They will never remember their favorite day on an iPad, they will remember that time that they fell down a steep trail or rode an obstacle they didn’t think they could. Yep, give them that and you’ll get a gift also” That is my answer.
See you outside!!
Crystal Kovacs 