My children are comfortable in a lot of places. Between them-- a courtroom, a classroom, a tennis court, a conference room, city streets, entertainment venues.
Where neither seem particularly happy is in nature. We never took them camping or went on hikes or did much of any outdoor sport. Ice skating was all about the cocoa. They were suburban kids.
I feel we let them down in this area. I doubt either of them could name a tree or plant or bird they came across outdoors. Our one attempt to fish ended up with swimmer's itch from parasites in the lake.
I went to camp as a kid and was exposed to some of this and my husband grew up in the country and did all those country boy things. But the little we knew, we failed to pass on.
What did you fail to introduce to your kids? Or what did your parents not introduce to you? Do you feel you missed something important?
16 comments:
I introduced my kids to a couple County parks on Sunday and they mostly complained. Sunday was a day full of poor behavior anyway.
I took both boys on a Cub Scout campout this summer and they were VERY excited. I got little sleep.
My parents did not take us to art museums or such. That is where they fell short.
We don't do athletic-type things enough, I think. We hike a little, but that's about it.
My parents didn't do a lot of these types of things either, so maybe that's why. Or we'e just lazy :-)
What an interesting question, Patti! Actually, I have to say I'm with Fleur. Other than trips to the gym, there hasn't been a lot of sporting/athletics in our family, and that comes straight from our families of origin. Not a lot of sporting or athletics there, either.
My father took us ice-skating, sledding and played tennis. He was quite athletic. We all rode bikes.
So that wasn't our weakest area.
It was pure unadulterated nature we lacked.
My dad introduced me to a lot of things: first and foremost laughter and its (underestimated) significance in our life as well as reading, writing, painting, chess, scrabble and crosswords, stamps, spirituality, and even indoor cricket and wrestling. I didn't miss anything, maybe because he was always there, no matter where I looked. My wife and I have brought up our two kids much the same way.
My summers were spent in three different locales, camping, Six Flags of Texas, and St. Louis. I hated nature and camping then and I hate it now, I loved the big city then and I love the big city now.
Maybe it is not your fault or your husband's that your children dislike or are indifferent to Mother Nature.
Though I did go camping a few times while at summer camp, I do wish we'd done a lot more of that, or at least my dad had taken us, and gone stream fly fishing and on hikes in national and state parks.
I did grow up in the sort-of country, not a farm or anything, but an avocado ranch on a few acres. My nature time was climbing trees, hiking in the hills, picking fruit and veggies, avoiding rattlers and messing with tarantulas (they would crawl slowly up one arm then I would put the other out and they would crawl back down that one... I thought they were very cool. Still do). I learned all the local birds, had a field guide and a couple of nature books, even a bird call. Insects interested me too. I raised some ducks as a kid. I had games like Animal Lotto, and jigsaw puzzles with nature subjects, too.
The other thing I got was a lot of gardening knowledge by helping my mother. I'd dig the holes, or help water, and she always made sure I knew the names of the plants and we'd watch them grow. Same for our veggies, trees and shrubs.
We went to art museums, natural history museums, science and technology, all were good ones in L.A.
You had a great inheritance, Rick.
Curiosity killed the cat ~
Satisfaction brought it back.
No complaints from me. I'll try just about anything and in turn try to inspire open & curious minds across the spectrum.
I moved a lot with my family -- this helped inspire flexibility.
The only problem I run into is that people think that, because I grew up and live in Montana, that I must have things like hunting and fishing in my blood. I don't. My dad never did either of these things, so he didn't pass them on to me (he was more of a mechanic, something he tried to pass onto me but failed; I wish I'd been more attentive because it's a skill I'd love to have now). I got out in nature a LOT, because where we lived I had acres and acres to roam, and I was outside by myself all the time.
Now I find myself trying fishing, and wanting to hunt. Not a big fan of the money it will take for the gear, though -- one of the things I love about hiking is as long as I have shoes and a sack to carry a container of water in, I can go just about anywhere.
All my urban skills I've learned myself. My folks never really passed any of that onto me either. But they did teach me not to be a dumbass, and that has been a huge advantage whenever I remember to take advantage of it.
I can't think of a lot we didn't do as kids other than travel. I know a lot of people took cross-country trips or went to Disneyland or the Grand Canyon but we didn't.
What we did was: for six years my parents sent my brother and me to summer camp, where we hiked and swam and rode horses, shot guns and bows & arrows, camped out in the woods and learned about trees, hiked and went on overnights, sleeping out in nature.
Two years before that we spent at an aunt's house right on White Lake upstate. And after camp we spent several summers at different bungalow colonies in New Jersey.
At home we did go to museums, also libraries and movies and a few Broadway shows. Oh yeah, also to the old Yankee Stadium and the Polo Grounds. I shared baseball and football with my father and still do, more than 50 years later.
Jeff M.
I was pretty lucky. I think the only things from their childhoods my parents didn't introduce me to were the Depression and World War II. I don't feel as though I missed a lot.
My mother did instill a love of old movies in me. I've tried to carry on by at least introducing my daughter to some of the music I grew up playing and listening to when i was a musician, and have taken her to see Maynard Ferguson, Doc Severinsen, and Tower of Power. We had regular evenings of what she would consider old movies when she was younger (JAWS, BUTCH CASSIDY, THE GODFATHER, THE LONGEST DAY, THE BRIDGE OVER THE RIVER KWAI, LAWRENCE OF ARABIA, etc.)
And baseball. She now goes to more games each year than I do. All in all, I don't think there's much about my formative experiences that I wanted to pass on that I didn't, and some that I did pass on that I wish I hadn't. Like my eyesight.
But that's mostly her mother's fault.
I didn't do a lot of camping with Josh but we did some and he enjoys that. I didn't teach him a lot of handyman kinds of things because I'm not good with that myself.
As a kid I spent a great deal of time in the woods. My father took me fishing and to some sporting events. He even took me to saloons. My mother tried to inculcate me with the joys of housecleaning. She failed. In my thirties I resumed my outdoor activities and hunted and fished every season. Never cared much for camping, but did it a few times. My kids camp, but not because I took them.
Camping was always a family vacation when I was a kid--not because my parents were particularly avid nature lovers, but because camping was a relatively cheap vacation--and I could never understand its allure because it seemed just like being home except with leaky tents and mosquitoes and no television (this was in the 1970s). The only time I go camping these days is when we have to evacuate because of a hurricane. I can't tell you how many Labor Days I've spent in a pop-up camper at a state park waiting for the news that the danger has passed.
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