Why Kids Don’t Climb Trees (Anymore)
Safetyism has gone too, too far. Time for the pendulum to swing back.
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Yesterday was one of those great summer days. Sparkling sunshine and the faint hope that the long spell of horrible, dull, cold weather was finally over. Looking out my window, I saw a squirrel scurry and jump. Presumably jumping for joy that the worst of the year was over.
As that squirrel jumped, my eye rose up along the stiff skeleton of the giant maple out back. It too was awakening. As I looked at this welcoming giant, I asked myself why no kids had ever climbed it? I had, many times, yet none of the kids around the neighborhood despite my open-door policy had ever ventured and I speculated, even imagined…..
So I set out to find the answer to that question — “why our kids don’t climb trees anymore?”
Are kids so well informed about liability and insurance now? Do their parents keep them under lock and key and provide daily reminders of the evils of tree climbing? Are they just scared? What I wondered had led to this tree and so many others trees, to be left “unclimbed”?
The question bothered me for I had always been the type that would climb, “because it was there.” It was the challenge, the feeling that I could, that uplifted me and caused me to propel myself upwards as far as I could go. Perhaps kids had just given up. Perhaps due to all their video game playing, they just couldn’t, lacking the musculature. Perhaps they didn’t care about challenging themselves anymore. Perhaps they didn’t even notice all these trees mocking them, chanting, “climb me, climb me, I dare you!”
So I took a little walk on this wonderful afternoon. A walk through the heart of the city, in search of kids, to ask them directly and find out for myself.
I surveyed 100 kids. Their ages varied between 7–13. Not very scientific, I just chose kids who I thought would be good tree climbers. Simple enough.
I asked them the following questions.
a) Have you climbed a tree in the past year?
b) Have you played a video game in the past year?
c) If you haven’t climbed a tree, why not?
The results confirmed the fact that my tree had remained unconquered. Only 1 kid had replied that he had climbed a tree in the past year. But he admitted, he had been forced to. He was escaping a group of bullies. He’d been treed.
99% of the kids surveyed hadn’t climbed a tree this past year and in fact, 97% of them had never! Regarding the video game playing, a full 100% had played.
I asked them why they hadn’t climbed a tree. Most without hesitation laughed and said it “wasn’t cool”. Another large percentage said that they had never even thought about it. Just wasn’t on their radar screen.
So why do I bore you with all this talk about, “why don’t our kids climb trees anymore?” Well, we are facing an epidemic, a crisis. Our children will be dying in vast numbers prematurely if we don’t address this issue. The issue is that many are inactive, overweight, or even obese. The numbers are alarming and we need to do something about it. We need to get our kids not just climbing trees again but wanting to climb trees!
Let me hit you with a few facts. Swallow these:
Obesity in boys has grown 5 fold in the past 20 years, in girls, 4 fold (Int. Journal of Obesity)
Canadian children are the fattest in the world and even getting fatter the fastest! (Canadian Population Health Initiative)
Obesity as a health risk factor is now a more serious issue than cigarette smoking. It kills 21,000 / year prematurely and costs the health care system, $3.1 billion / year. The economic burden of physical inactivity in Canada — Peter T. Katzmarzyk, CMAJ
I could go on and on and on. I don’t think I have to win you over regarding how serious a problem this is. A recent Ipso-Reid poll showed that 94% of Canadians strongly agree that “overweight and inactive children is a serious issue.” The question beyond all the various programs advocating more activity, better nutritional choices, and more dollars spent on research — the $64,000 question is, “why don’t kids climb trees anymore?”
I kid you not. Find the answer to that question and you will begin to unroot the real reason why we have a society so full of overweight and inactive youth. And to say they don’t climb them because it “isn’t cool”, isn’t good enough.
Firstly, without a doubt, kids don’t climb trees because they don’t get out of the house much. “You can’t climb a mountain without getting to the mountain.”, I was once told as a budding mountaineer. Dr. Oded Bar Or of McMaster Children’s Hospital puts it succinctly, “If I were to give a single recommendation on how parents can encourage children to be physically active, I would say send them outdoors.” This is the best gift you can give you child — get them out of the house!
I reflect on my own neighborhood. Like any Canadian street; tree-lined, quiet and safe. Yet, this pleasant Sunday afternoon, it is as if a nuclear bomb had exploded. There are no kids out and about. No skateboarders, no kids bouncing a basketball, no girls skipping, no frisbee throwers and certainly no tree climbers!
So next, how do we get our kids out of the house short of just kicking them out? There are many ways in my opinion but the hardest part is getting the kids to want to go out on their own. Parents can plan activities together which means being outside, they can turn off the computer and TV and allot a timetable, and cities can provide more free space for kids to play, and explore. We can do all that but we will fail unless our kids themselves, in their heart of hearts, want to go outside. Want to go outside and maybe, see the tree, climb the tree.
In my opinion, there is only one way to do this given the plethora of advertising that portrays music, computers, TV, cellphones, hanging out, “ease”, as being cool. The only way is to fight fire with fire — — a call to arms, a massive ad campaign designed to make it cool for our youth to be outside, to be active, to be healthy, and to take control over their own lives and health. A call for all levels of governments and corporations to create a “Participaction” style campaign that will give our youth a new attitude. An attitude that says, “climbing trees is cool”.
We need each and every Canadian to scream loud and clear, “I’ve had enough and I’m not going to take it anymore.”, a cry that we need to take responsibility for our children so that we might prevent the epidemic of premature death that we are facing. We are the inheritance of our children and everyone has a stake in this problem.
I dream of a Canada where more kids are climbing trees. I dream of a Canada where kids are not kicked out of the house but willingly go out and play. Play and experience what is the foundation of all future success — experiencing their limits. Testing how far they can get up the tree of life. With positive and esteem-building experiences with their own bodies, our children will be rewarded with a lifetime of health and vigor.
The afternoon is ending and the sunlight is streaming through the window. Time for me to get up out of this chair and go for a run. A few blocks over to the track and then the big climb over the 3-meter fence. The schoolyard is locked up on weekends but this can’t keep me out. I am the master of my own fate — a lesson we must teach our children. A lesson that climbing trees teaches.
Before putting on my shoes, I pick up my always handy book of poems by Rumi, a Persian writer who wrote before the age of computers, hip-hop, and snowboarding. I pick it up and ready his thought and suck on it like a cough drop;
Do not talk to me
of Love and Death.
There is a garden out back.
Come! Let’s play!