Accessibility of the Great Outdoors

When I was a kid, on a nice day, you could see kids playing in any neighborhood you passed through. "Go play outside," was like a mantra in my house and, I'm pretty sure, in most other houses with children. Starting about maybe twenty years ago, I started noticing empty neighborhoods. It was as though there were no more children. There is a family that lives behind me with three children that are now grown and gone. As they were growing up, I could count how many times I saw any of them playing outside on one hand.

It seems to me there is a real disconnect between this generation and all things outdoors. They are so wrapped up in their cellphones and video games that they have trouble functioning in the analog world. Trading skills in the real world for the ephemeral world of digits is more than sad.

There is an immature Bald Eagle perched on the wood duck nest box in the background

The creatures that I film and share on this blog are not far off. Some of them, I don't even leave the yard to photograph. Maybe I fail much of the time, but one of the goals I have is to whet the reader's appetite to get out and enjoy the world outside their own door.

It isn't the fault of the kids. It is the parents who are not taking the time to spend with the children to teach them skills, how to see and do things outdoors. You can resolve to change that in your own children's lives. Don't end up twenty years from now regretting the lost time you could have enjoyed with your children outdoors.