LAST CHILD SEEING GREEN

I was doing a quick grocery store shop the other day and stopped dead in my tracks as I saw the cutest baby girl ever, sitting in a shopping cart, transifixed by the images on the small screen of a DVD player that her mom had plonked in her lap. I knowwww – every time I point my finger at someone, there’s three fingers pointing back at me, BUT.. there’s something that doesn’t seem right about the fact that our kids aren’t allowed to be bored anymore. I’m maybe one of those weird moms who happens to think that boredom is a brilliant thing for a kid – annoying for me, granted, but when my daughter declares that she’s “bored”, I initially ask her if she wants some chores, which has those little getaway sticks running off in the opposite direction QUICKLY. Without a TV or computer, she’s forced to use her gray matter and come up with a cool way of entertaining herself, which she never ceases to do. Clearly allowing a child to be bored, fosters a rich imagination, and allows a child to connect to his/her surroundings.

I relate this topic to green living because I’m a firm believer that we have to encourage a connection to the natural world in order to really understand the interconnectedness of all things. Part of the human problem over the past few hundred years, is that we have, for the most part, lost that connection. We compartmentalize our lives: this is my office, my home, my school, the store and oh yes..nature’s kind of out there too – somewhere!

As a child, like many, we used to take long road trips across the country. When my brother and I were done fighting or the I-spy games had exhausted themselves, we would just chill. I remember hours of just staring out at the landscape and thinking – imagining all kinds of weird and wonderful things. I’d go into a sort of zone where questions formed about the world around me, “mom, how did mountains get there?” I’d ask “or “how many years would’ve it taken for that tree to grow?” etc – the questions and answers were endless, until mom turned the radio on and I could get back to my private little world inside my head. If, conversely, I had been glazed over watching a DVD, it would’ve obviously been an entirely different matter. So without DVD players and video games, my brother and I learned some of the most valuable life lessons ever: how to be patient, how to tolerate boredom & quiet, how to behave in grocery stores and restaurants when it wasn’t all about us! Most importantly, however, we enjoyed a connection with our environment.

We obviously now live in world where our kids will grow up with hand held devices (I’ll put off the cell phone for my daughter for as long as I possibly can), but it’s inescapable and will be the air that they breathe. As a result, the one thing that I can do before it’s too late, is to invite my daughter to engage in what is around her. Once out in the woods, fields, park, or even driving along country roads, it’s no longer a forced issue.

The other day she and her friend wanted to watch a TV show. I could hear myself sounding just like my mom, as I said, “No – it’s a gorgeous day – go play outside”. So off they stomped in very bad grace and I didn’t hear a peep. Two hours later they came running in flushed with excitement as they’d created a bee hospital in my small backyard. I ventured out and found an elaborate affair complete with bee stretchers made out of leaves, bee ambulances made out of pieces of bark..and even worm surgeons -who kept disappearing!

I’m so not the perfect mom and sometimes for 5 minutes peace, I’ll let her go comatose in front of the box, and I also understand that many moms live in an urban setting with barely a blade of grass close by, but it doesn’t take a lot to spark their fiery imaginations and if we want them to grow up green, switching off that screen is perhaps a good place to start.

I also highly recommend a brilliant book called “Last Child In The Woods”.