A quick snapshot poem this week:
It’s not often these days that I get to take my children to a park, or to the beach, or to anywhere with wide open spaces close to nature. Their days are so heavily scheduled: school and homework and after-school activities, and even weekends are filled with commitments. It’s only on school holidays that they really get freedom and space, and even then they’re usually chaperoned, with me fussing about making sure that their sunscreen is reapplied every two hours and that they’re wearing their hats …
I’ve kept them safe, but they don’t have much freedom.
I lament that they’ve missed out on idle time in green spaces. On things like walking home in the rain, and wading through long grass, and climbing trees. We’ve taken them camping and bushwalking, and tried to inject nature into their lives, but it’s sad that we have to consciously schedule this ‘green’ time when once it was a natural part of a child’s day.
If I had my time over, it’s one thing I’d do differently—I wouldn’t schedule my kids’ lives anywhere near as much, and I don’t think they’d miss out on a thing.
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