1. Being an outdoor teenager provides social status. My oldest son is in the 8th grade, and one of his friends is selling home made survival bracelets to help pay for his older brother's Scout trip to Japan. "You could tell who the hikers were," he said. "We could see all kinds of ways you could use it. Zane asked how it protects you." You're correct if you guessed that Zane doesn't hike.
2. They announce they're moving to the mountains. "When I move out, I'm moving to Banff," my 9-year-old son announced one day. "It's right in the mountains, and there are lots of trails everywhere." Later that day he also announced that when he was in high school he was going to live with me, sleep on the couch all day, and I'd have to feed him. Both of his announcements sound good to me!
3. The presents they give you are really for them...and they're for camping. That's what happened a couple birthdays ago when they gave me backpacking pots, plates, bowls and mugs. "We can take them when we go camping," one said. "Look how the mugs and stuff all fit together. It's pretty cool." Yes it is, but not as cool as the fact that he said that. And much cooler than the Skylanders his friend George gave his father.
The last one was my favourite :) Just discovered your blog and it looks like a great keeper. Tell him he can come visit me in Hinton anytime.
ReplyDeleteThanks! We have a lot of fun out in the mountains, and I have a lot of fun writing about it all. I need to get my boys up in your area more. We've been to Jasper (a couple years ago) and I'd love to take them to the Willmore Wilderness. That's amazing country!
DeleteYou are my role model for being the most amazing dad Ken! I hope some day I can have a similar opportunity to bond with my own kid in much the same way you do. Taking him/her to mountains, camping, backpacking, fishing, climbing....
ReplyDeleteThanks! Hiking is a lot more fun than walking around the mall as a family.
DeleteDid you ever go through a phase with the boys when they didn't want to do outdoorsy stuff? My daughter is 8. She LOVES camping but says she doesn't like canoeing, hiking, or snowshoeing. Um. Really? This presents a bit of a challenge for us. *Sigh* When she's on the trail, she has a good time. But sometimes getting her to the trail is a real challenge. Do you have any tips?
ReplyDeleteHiking was painful when it was just the three of us. After five minutes the complaining would start: I'm tired, I'm bored, when can we go back to the car? So I started organizing kid hikes with my mountain group, the Calgary Outdoor Recreation Association. With other kids, even ones they'd never met before, hiking suddenly became playing and they'd run down the trail. After a while they also knew we'd all go for ice cream after the hike. Never under estimate the power of post-hike bribes.
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