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Outdoor Life: Don't forget to let kids be kids
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Posted by rdtusmc Sun Jul 16, 2006 15:07:04 PDT
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0 responses 0 comments By Dick Taylor
Outdoors Columnist
The look on the face of a child who is experiencing a fun outdoor activity is one of those priceless things in life.
We can create the environment for kids to have fun. Certainly times have changed from when I was a kid growing up in Bakersfield in the 50s and 60s.
The days of letting your kids roam around the neighborhood on foot or riding a bicycle or dirt bike unsupervised in the foothills are long gone. Not that it was a great idea back then, but the odds of something happening in terms of foul play are many times greater today.
There are a number of things we as parents need to be vigilant regarding and that you just can’t be flexible about.
Examples:
• Don’t let your kids ride dirt bikes unsupervised or ride in residential areas.
• Don’t let your kids play in or near bodies of water without you supervising them EVERY DANG SECOND! DUH!   
There are more people on earth and more goofballs to go along with those numbers. Everything is more crowded: streets, highways, theaters, parks, you name it.
Parents have chosen to have “things” in their lives that create a requirement for a job to pay for said items. The majority of families have both parents working outside the home.   
Somewhere in the process of acquiring these “things” that we simply must have, we have tried to cram more activities into the same 24-hour day that existed 40 or 50 years ago.
Of course, there’s a big difference in a kid getting hurt by a stranger vs. a kid getting hurt because they crashed and burned on a dirt bike after going over the handlebars on a trail.
To counter these threats of physical harm, parents need to do everything within their power to protect their kids from harm by strangers and, do everything within their power to reasonably protect their kids when they’re just being a kid.
Cheryl and I are firm believers that kids need to be able to kick dirt, climb on boulders and get dirty without parents hovering over them non-stop to prevent such “atrocities.”
Kids need to have time to simply play. They need to be allowed to try and fix or disassemble things to see how they work, so they don’t end up like so many of our young adults in life.
By that, I mean being able to function in the workplace as a young adult without an employer hovering over them every moment, guiding them through basic things they should have learned at home like most of us did in my generation and in previous generations as well.
Also, as kids experience things in life under proper adult supervision, they grasp the concept that certain activities have consequences (translate, pain) and that getting a skinned knee or elbow doesn’t mean you’re out of commission for the duration of the day.
Some things in life simply require dusting oneself off and then continuing to function. It’s the theory of getting right back on the horse if you get bucked off.
So whether your kid ends up in college, the job market or in the military, they’ll be a step ahead of a lot of their peers by learning the items I’ve just mentioned.
I’m not saying that kids should be allowed to do whatever they want. Teaching responsibility and respect for animals, the environment and others is all a part of the parenting gig.
So whether you take your kids, grandkids, nieces or nephews out on a dirt bike, quad, camping or simply take a spin out to the California Living Museum (CALM), let them get dirty and have some fun. 
Happy Trails!  
E-mail Dick at: rdtusmc@msn.com

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