Where am I: on the second level of the backyard, on the outdoor couch, wearing the coolest clothes (temperature-wise) I could find to not be hot while I (finally) trimmed some trees and pulled weeds.
Listening to: The boys vacillate between bickering, complain, and laughing over making the hose "fart"
Last ate: a maple flavored Nature Valley granola bar
Thoughts: Never before have I known a 7 year old boy who needed 1 hour (no exaggeration) of convincing that june bugs were not poisonous spiders incognito, that ants were not big enough to harm him, and that the outside is not a place to be feared.
I admit I am not the biggest outside kid myself, but I my ritual of being outside does not include sitting and listing everything I hate about being outside for no less than 60 minutes before someone finally places me outside the back gate and tells me to not come back until I've learned how to have fun.
I try to be a parent that listens and tries to understand where the fear come from so that he feels I empathize with him and will continue to want to talk to me about his emotions and thoughts. But seriously! Anyone know of a good wilderness trek program I can send this kid to so that he can get over this "I hate the outdoors" complex?
2 comments:
Boy scouts? I was a Girl Scout. I spent tons of time outside anyway as a kid but Girl Scouts was pretty fun.
Send those boys over here. They will collect every living, squirming, icky bug they can find and will learn to love and name each one.
We really have got to have you all over. Maybe next week...?
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