I can’t abide arm-chair parenting. I really dislike this
culture of television and gadgets designed to numb the minds of kids. When my
nephew first met a horse he was terrified – all city living, all class but no
(agri)culture. I grew up in the company of horses, I walked barefoot and stepped
in glass, thorns, bees. It taught me how to
look where I was going. There wasn’t such a ‘television culture’ back when
I was a kid, so I read books and played outside. It taught me how to spell. When my cousin visits over the holidays
with her kids, we’ve two channels showing cartoons all day and you’re knee-deep
in kids in any room in the house. When I was a girl, we’d be admonished for
lounging about, with a short, stern ‘go play outside’. Our skins were
sun-hardened and our soles were battle-ready. We grew like poppies to love the
sun.
I've two beautiful nephews who work hard to keep me in
touch with all the kid-ness I can take. No small helpings, you understand. To
them, my name is ‘when are we going to go swim?’ and they call me by that name
whenever they see me. They’ve called me by that name even when I am in an
evening gown, power suit or pyjamas. They are all energy and raw nerves.
As cliché as it sounds, so much of the future depends on the
way we raise these kids. Be aware, cook your own food. Eat well, love animals.
These are the impressions I try to make on them. At six and
four they aren’t impressed by the fact that I know that those pale daisies are
in fact osteopermum, and they haven’t
taken heed of my lectures on a horse’s digestive system (though they will
suffer for it later on, when they receive the same lessons, revised with extra chapters
on nutrition). What does impress them, however, is the rapport I have with
domestic animals, the fact that I can walk on my hands in the swimming pool and
my mad skills at baking delicious cakes. Actually my second name is ‘is it
ready yet?’. If this is all I ever teach them (eat well, play outside, love
animals) I’d consider it a great success.
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| Must love dogs |
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