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This episode is all about survival shows. There are great shows on tv no and in the past about survival. There are a lot of great things and a lot of bad advise as well on them. Here are some of things to keep in mind when you watch them as well as what ones are best for us as hunters, and outdoorsmen.
Jason,
Like you, I had a strong response to your description of being faulted for not having safety rails on your boat or having your kids in life jackets in a boat sitting still or puttering along with a troll motor in a foot or two of water. I also respond strongly to how helpless people are becoming, both in the outdoors but also just in general. If you haven’t watched the Disney movie “Wall-E” you gotta, even though I know you’re not big on TV and whatnot. It makes that point (and others about conservation and taking care of Mother Earth) very well – and of course the movie was a flop because at a gut level 99% of people know it’s right and it makes them really uncomfortable – a bit to close to the truth for them. So, they don’t watch a movie like that. They’d rather deceive themselves than face that truth and change.
On a related note, I am a Clinical Psychologist. Right now, I work with veterans at the VA (trying not to figure out how to work archery with spinal cord injured veterans into my job). Prior to this, though, I worked with very troubled kids for about 10 years. In my opinion, a primary reason they were troubled to begin with is that they were never taught to care for themselves and to deal with the real world. Wii, XBox, and Facebook do not do that and in fact do quite the opposite (if it doesn’t work, hit the reset button and you can try again without consequence). For a couple of years I worked in a wilderness program, a very mild version of “Outward Bound.” Even though DHR, who funded some of it, made us tame it down a lot, just having kids out in the woods and keeping things basic did worlds of good for them. So many life lessons… “Okay, don’t split that wood, but you’re gonna be cold tonight and you run out of wood at 2 am. Okay, go run around and play and don’t set up that tent with your tent-mate, but you’re really gonna wish you had because the sky’s looking like rain and the temperature looks to drop too.” Many of my fellow Psychologists may disagree and think “everyone should get a trophy,” but self-esteem is built on being faced with real-world challenges, facing them, problem-solving, and then genuinely overcoming them. Sometimes you fail to overcome them and have to try again and sometimes that hurts – that’s real-to-life. Self-estemm is not given, it’s not having someone prop your kid up in a tree stand to wait for a farmed and hand-fed trophy buck parade by. At a gut level we all know that and kids are no different – they know they got that trophy even though they failed or didn’t accomplish anything in getting it. The value comes from working for it.
So Jason, speaking as a fellow father and as a professional, keep doing exactly what you are, guide your children as they develop mastery, self-esteem, and real-world competence. I’ll be doing the same with my daughter (six years old).
Thank you again for what you are doing. See ya in the woods sometime…
Rush
Very well said and explained! Glad to know there are others that feel the same way I do about raising kids today. Mine are 11 and 12 and I already see the difference between them and their friends.
Keep it up with your 6 year old. I have a feeling 20 years from now it will be people like her that will be highly sought after in every aspect of life.
Thanks,
Jason