A Childhood Within The Woods
Our safety-obsessed culture has resulted in a generation of kids who haven't experienced getting lost among the trees. The cure is unstructured wandering in the woods.
Our safety-obsessed culture has resulted in a generation of kids who haven't experienced getting lost among the trees. The cure is unstructured wandering in the woods.
The Coddling of the American Mind is an eye-opening read. While I remember my childhood being full of unsupervised time out in the yard and in the woods (as early as 4 and 5 years old), the recent trends of safetyism in the 2000s and 2010s resulted in kids never being out of sight of adults (even into their high school years).
It's so bad that some kids in affluent suburban areas are transported from house to house, not even allowed to walk or bike themselves between buildings.
By contrast, at 10 years old, I was biking a mile down the state highway to the local pond.
By contrast, at 12 years old, I was biking 7-8 miles through the country to my friend's house.
Today, if a kid was allowed to do this, some people would call the cops!
Alas, my goal is not to fight this at a societal level.
I am, however, making efforts to ensure my kids don't get straight-jacketed into this restrictive way of living.
This brings me to the woods.
My brothers and I built forts in the trees for hours with our friends. We were allowed to walk and explore them without any supervision. We found burned-down buildings. We found massive oak trees. We played games. And so on.
It was such a fun time, and it is even more so now that I am an adult with young kids.
Now, I'm unwilling to go as far as my mom did and let my kids go unsupervised. That feels too much slack in today's world. BUT, I want them to experience the joy of unstructured wandering in the wilderness.
In the last few months, I've taken my youngest (4 years old) through some trails in the woods. While I've become a type-A adult who wants to Strava how fast I hiked each trail segment, the kid in me wants to stop and pick the mushrooms (don't worry, I'm not eating them).
And so it goes with my kid. She's having a blast picking up acorns, jumping over the streams, finding all the juniper trees, and exploring the rocks along the trails.
It's amazing how this 1-4 miles of hiking grounds her and tires her out physically. It does the same for me in the best of ways.
It also gives me a moment or two to share all the things I experienced growing up. My youngest gets a kick out of it because she feels more connected to her daddy, and she loves having me hold her as we leap across streams that are too wide for her.
Honestly, it's as much for me as it is for her.
Some days, on my way home, I've made it a point to stop at one of the local parks. They have so many awesome trails going in and out of the woods. Sometimes, I just let my mind wander as I wander. It's better than meditation, to be honest. And it puts me back to the time when I was a kid, not always racing through a TODO list at work, but just fucking around with a stick in the mud, having the best time.
We should all give ourselves and our kids the joy of just being in nature, without constraints or goals—just being and enjoying.
And so I'll keep leaning into this until the summers get too hot and the bugs get unbearable. For now, I'll enjoy as many quiet winter walks in the woods as possible.