Parents, remember when we were young? Do you remember something we loved to do when we were kids? That’s right! We loved to play outside, didn’t we? Do you remember something we loved to do outdoors? He was playing outside and outside of adult supervision and control, right? And isn’t it true that one of the fun, independent things we used to do outside and out of sight of our parents was climb trees?
Truth be told, our parents sometimes saw us climbing trees through the kitchen window, but they rarely stopped us. Instead, they just made the plasters just in case we scraped one of our knees. I suppose our parents must have been at least a little nervous looking at us through the kitchen window, but they always seemed to be able to put their feelings of fear aside. They stayed at home and let us learn and grow outside through well-calculated risk taking that built resilience. Our tree climbing sometimes ended with a band-aid on our knees, but it also produced a smile on our faces. We had fun, we overcame our fears, and we achieved something worthwhile, which was to climb higher than the day before.
Today, our children rarely go outside and rarely climb trees. Furthermore, they are rarely outside the supervision of an adult and are therefore rarely forced to solve problems on their own. Sometimes I would like one of my children to ask me to climb a tree, or better yet, not ask, but just do it. Go ahead, climb that tree! Get some exercise outside and put down those electronics.
Now, as my grandfather always said, “Go learn, lead and lead the way to a better world for all of us. Parents, maybe we should let our children climb trees again. It could be good for them. And a Once again parents, thank you in advance for all that you do, and all that you will do …