With each generation we become more disconnected from nature. We remember childhood summers spent wading through creeks in search of frogs, collecting wildflowers to take home to mom, hours spent just sitting outside observing the bugs and birds around us. What will your kids remember?
Author Richard Louv sounded the alarm in his 2005 book, Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder, and he reports back in a March/April 2007 Orion article on the 'Leave No Child Inside' movement.
As we celebrate Outdoor Home month here at AT, we can't think of a better book for parents to be thinking about.
Here's one Amazon reviewer's experience:
My "wake up call" came when my friend from the city brought her toddler to my home and the little girl cried in terror when her mother tried to get her to put her bare feet on the lawn, a lawn that was free of anything dangerous. We don't have a dog so there weren't even any "droppings" to worry about. A baby who was scared to touch ground? Her mother admitted that her offspring had never felt grass because her mother feared it might be too full of "germs". I urged her to at least let her daughter smell a handful of freshly picked clover but she looked at me as though I were crazy.
Louv identifies several factors contributing to what he calls the "denatured" childhood kids are living today: overprotective parents, restricted access to natural areas, our national addiction to television and computers, commercial development of natural spaces, and overscheduled and overstressed kids.
What do you think? Is "nature-deficit disorder" a fair assessment or an exaggeration? What are some of your favorite nature-related childhood memories?
OH, how sad for that mom and child! I spent almost all of my time growing up outdoors-- riding bikes, hiking in the woods behind the house, building forts and bridges, swinging across the creek on a rope swing, and even just making mudpies or running through the sprinklers. I remeber creating entire worlds in my mother's garden with the runoff from the hose as the main water source....also just playing with the neighborhood kids. And swimming! I want to take my little baby boy in the water with me even though he's only 3 months old.
I think nature-deficit disorder could be a real problem! We all talk about being green but how often do we spend time outdoors, actually enjoying nature? I want him to love the outdoors! We live in the city now, but when he is able to crawl and walk I want to take him to parks to feel the grass. Right now we take walks together and at least get to see trees and squirrels...once we saw a beaver in the swampy ditch behind our apartment! I'm trying to take a walk every day, but even if that doesn't happen, I hope he'll learn to appreciate nature through actual experiences, not the Discovery Channel.
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