It’s hard to be a kid these days. When I was a child growing up in small-town Texas, we would head out the door each morning of our summer vacation and be outside all day. Even then, when we were called in at the end of the day, we reluctantly went inside. Kids these days sit slack-jawed and glassy-eyed in front of the television, playing video or computer games and messing around with their smart phones. I’ve see them as young as 10 years of age fiddling around with their very own smart phones. The other day I asked an acquaintance what she got her 5-year-old for Christmas. She said, “You’re gonna think I’m crazy, but I got him a smart phone; he can play games on it”… SERIOUSLY!!!?. And, yes, I do think she’s crazy.
Childhood obesity has more than tripled in the past thirty years according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. One of the contributing factors for this is inactivity. Instead of being outside running and playing, they are parked on the couch with their gadgetry. It is an unfortunate fact that children are no longer safe to play outside unattended. Too many things can happen in the blink of an eye. Of course, things can happen in the country, too, and their activities should be monitored wherever they are. If you own rural central Texas acreage, your children or grandchildren can create the kind of memories they will never forget. The night skies in the central Texas hill country are crystal-clear. They can see the Milky Way and learn the planets and constellations while sitting around a campfire. They can hunt Indian artifacts and fossils. They can observe wildlife and livestock in their natural habitat. They can watch the calves and ponies run alongside their mothers. There’s nothing as cute as a lamb or a kid. They can see deer, turkeys, hogs, skunks, raccoons, possums & armadillos just to name a few of the native inhabitants. Picking wildflowers in the spring is one of the things I remember most as a child, as most little girls do. The central Texas ranch land abounds in flowers of all colors in the springtime just waitin’ for the pickin’. Any time our grandchildren visit they never get bored, and we always have to make them come in before dark.
I have observed that kids who spend time in the country learn responsibility at an earlier age. They become more willing to help with chores because they experience a sense of pride by pitching in. One of our grandsons loved to gather eggs from the henhouse when he was younger. They all love to ride around in the tractor to help put out hay bales and cube the cows, and all the while being outdoors.
Let your kids and grandkids be kids while they can. They’ll grow up soon enough, so enrich the lives of the children in your life as well as your own by providing a place of recreation and learning in Central Texas’ “Top of the Hill Country”.
If you’d like to learn more about rural Central Texas living, please visit http://www.txbrandland.com