There is a good body of research showing that kids today are spending less and less time outdoors and more time indoors, mostly glued to screens. This is apparently contributing to a whole host of problems, including increased obesity, decreased ability to use the imagination, lack of appreciation of nature ("Mom, what's a 'backyard'? . . . Wait -- we HAVE one? Awesome! Wait -- what is it again?"), etc.
These studies, however accurate they may be, are obviously not referring to the kids across the street from us.
These kids are outside all the time. Running, playing, screeching, repeatedly blowing the horn on an old VW Bug sitting in the parking lot. I don't have any evidence, but they probably even go down to the river behind our house and catch frogs.
On a perfectly sunny, warm fall day last year, as the horn on the Bug continued to shatter the quiet, the fact that we don't have normal neighborhood kids overwhelmed me. "Why," I asked the Hero, "are these kids outside on such a nice day? Why aren't they inside watching TV, or playing video games, or on their computers? Things kids their age are supposed to be doing?"
We shook our heads at all the things these poor kids are missing out on. Less of an imagination. Ignorance of nature. Obesity. Good grief, they not only know what a backyard is, they explore it. With their hands and feet and eyes and ears and noses. Poor things.
We can only hope that in time, they'll somehow catch up with their peers. And really, if we care about them as we should -- if we really believe it "takes a village" and all that -- we'll take them under our wing and do some mentoring: "See, grass contains gazillions of creeping, icky things that can crawl on you and give you the heebie-jeebies...OR you could just watch them through a cool nature webcam...here, let's go inside and take a look..."
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