Nature Disorder Deficit (NDD) for short. It’s when your urbanised child never experiences the outdoors in an unstructured way. One of the primary symptoms of this nature-child disconnection is “the replacement of the green space by the screen space as the occupier of the child’s free time”
Every father wrestles with his children’s seemingly insatiable appetite for technology in all its forms. Spar
e time becomes stare time as kids gaze at the television, computer and the cell phone, or get lost in their iPods it’s a parental battle to get kids to turn off their electronic devices and swath on to you, each other or the natural world. We all know the downside of this lifestyle trend- obesity, a tendency to violence, inability to establish friendships, stunted emotional growth and severely truncated communication skills
Studies indicate that children who regularly spend unstructured time outside have lower stress levels, play more creatively, have more active imaginations, become fitter, develop stronger immune systems, experience fewer symptoms of ADD, and have greater respect for themselves, others and the environment. The days of our kids freely roaming the broader neighbourhood on bikes in search of a stream, a park, a tree or the beach, are gone. Our fears over their safety acts as a serious brake on our desire for our children to explore the unplugged world. Most of us try to compensate by making better use of our gardens. Conventional swings are great for smaller kids, a knotted rope for the older ones, or maybe even a trampoline or a sleep over for socialising. But the reality is that not many of us have the kind of garden that allows for any true sense of being unconstrained in the wild. To give our kids that essential experience, we must confront the fact that we MUST GO CAMPING. There are those dads who have a trailer permanently packed with all the impressive array of equipment, along with the ‘ITCH TO PITCH’ tents. Their off-springs are known as “nomads” because they are always dragged off to the Cedarberg or Tieties
Bay or even Soetwater. These admired men are genetically WIRED for camping, unlike those for whom camping is associated with discomfort, hasstle, and their general lack of survival skills. Then there’s also the packing and unpacking. It’s always too smoky, dirty and tiring. the backache from sleeping on the ground, either burnt or underdone braai,
or too much or too little alcohol
The stars alone makes the journey worthwhile. Kids and adults alike regain their sense of wonder staring at the kind of clear skies no city allows. The best family moments are had together around the campfire. Kids and adults interact on the same level, telling stories and sharing jokes, and sharing thoughts and ideas in general. This is mostly because no-one has to rush off anywhere or itching to turn on the TV. Everyone just slows down and are more relaxed. There’s more laughter and singing around the campfire than anywhere else. Camping can be relatively painless if you approach it with the right mindset and some commonsense. It’s no competition, so the kids won’t judge you on your clumsiness when it comes to pitching your tent, nor will they care if your gear is inferior to the neighbours’
Many serious campers seems determined to replicate the comforts of home, which defeat’s the point of making the effort of going camping to begin with, and also of wanting to be in a different environment . My opinion is that adults need a good mattress and the kids should do with what they have as they are meant to be roughing it. DON”T bring along the routine rules of domestic life. Trust the kids to explore and take some supervised risks. Also resist the temptation to organise the day, and rather let them do as they please , “to a point” Let the kids do their own packing and planning as they will have to live with the consequences of forgetting anything and learn to do without it. Lastly, there are no guarantees as camping can go horribly wrong, but the upside is that the fun, laughter and everything else associated with camping will overcome and outweigh the wrongs. TIP
Pack everything you need, then half it.
