Parents Should Take Their Kids to the Countryside

In the case of families living in urban environments, losing contact with nature is something that is very easy to do. Not many children or teens nowadays travel to the countryside during weekends, or in summer vacations, preferring to remain in the cities with their friends. Parents also share some of the responsibilities, in the sense that stressful jobs and overloaded work schedules do not allow them more time to spend with their families. However, investigators believe that these factors should not always deter families from taking small trips to the countryside whenever possible, AlphaGalileo reports.

University of Hertfordshire Rural Geography senior lecturer Debbie Pearlman Hougie is scheduled to speak next week at a meeting to be held at the university, in which she will ask for precisely this thing. She believes that parents should not let the comfort of modern life interfere with children's chances of getting to know their surroundings. Her idea is not a new one, taking children out of cities could also contribute to their health, and also their awareness on several issues, such as biodiversity and climate change. Many other researchers believe that seeing the countryside allows children to relate to efforts of saving our planet, which are currently being promoted by international authorities.

Pearlman Hougie will also be discussing the conclusions of her latest research which focused on middle-class children. She says that this population segment is prevented from going out and experiencing something else by two main things – the parent's inability to negotiate the countryside, and their fears of their children's safety in this environment, as well as the pull of the computer monitor. The Internet, with its games, instant chat programs and social networks, exerts arguably the most important influence on children today. The expert says that her study looked at 53 children, aged 5 to 10, from Hertordshire. She also conducted focus group with the parents.

“We know that nature is very relaxing and that fresh air is good for us. The aim is to make family outdoor recreation ‘cool’ and ‘trendy’ so that it becomes the ‘thing’ that children talk about,” says Pearlman Hougie. She reveals that 59 percent of the test participants wanted to spend more time outdoors, and to visit the countryside, while the rest were more intent on remaining in their homes, at their computers. The expert adds that the “cool factor”, currently present in social networks and gaming consoles such as the “Wii,” has been removed from going outside the home.