ETA: Apparently I never posted this from this past winter. I was going through my drafts (did this update swap the save and discard buttons? I’ve been accidentally saving blank comments for two days) and saw it sitting. The question stands in any season, so..
Exactly that. When we all got it by all that snow a couple weeks ago, I had to work. We weren’t busy, but I had an older dude around 10-15 years older than my dad come in. He was telling me about how they had to cancel his granddaughters birthday party at an indoor play park the night before because the play park decided to close for the weekend for everyone’s safety. He said they had to call everyone and so many kids were disappointed. I was like, “Oh that sucks. If you guys have a decent sized yard, yall should have had everyone over for a big snowball fight or something.” He looked at me kind of like, mystified? Like he didn’t realize that was an option at first. I kept going about how when I was a kid, every time it snowed heavy everyone would pile into my grandmas house. The kids would sled down her hill and the adults would take turns supervising and trolling. We would have soup and hot drinks and the adults would find a takeout spot that managed to open and get us dinner, then we would be dragged inside to watch tv or play video games until we passed out or got dragged home.
He looked like he couldn’t believe they didn’t think about that. He left with a look like he was about to call SOMEBODY about it. It got me thinking about how people complain that kids don’t play outside anymore, but does this mean some don’t teach kids HOW to play outside? We can’t be made at “these new kids” for not knowing how to enjoy something other than technology if we don’t show them, right?
With my goddaughter, I took her outside to parks and trails, and was around for her first experiences in snow and rain. Nothing felt better than helping her make and throw her first snowballs or being made to make her snowballs to toddler flop at her parents. I like to think as a dad I would make sure my kids love and understand nature as much as I do, if not more if they go on to study it or something.
TLDR; As a father, is one of your focuses for your young kids is learning how to play outdoors?