Nature - dirty and unsafe?

[oldtimer]

It makes be glad to have been born long enough ago to have a childhood in which foraging was normal, berries to avoid taught by my mother and long hours playing outdoors in the wild areas that still existed on the outskirts of Portsmouth encouraged. We went camping in the New Forest and other wooded parts of Hampshire and Sussex and as a teenager cycle camped solo all round Southern England when it was still villages in the country rather than islands of farmland in the midst of suburbia.

However, my grandchildren although kept on a tighter rein than I was get taken away to spend time in the country and are encouraged to do many of the things I used to do albeit under closer supervision.

My daughter-in-law, encouraging observation or nature while out foraging, was showing my grandson a lady bird on the palm of her hand. Granddaughter, never wanting to miss out on anything going, picks up live ladybird and pops it in her mouth! No harm done, except to ladybird, although grandaughter has been a bit picky about her food since.

 

[treadlightly]

If nature is part of our lives and we learn that we are a small part of it then we are free to enjoy it not fear it.

 

[Toddy]

..........
My daughter-in-law, encouraging observation or nature while out foraging, was showing my grandson a lady bird on the palm of her hand. Granddaughter, never wanting to miss out on anything going, picks up live ladybird and pops it in her mouth! No harm done, except to ladybird, although grandaughter has been a bit picky about her food since.

brilliant
My sons got so used to me foraging and feeding them as we walked that all it took was my hand near their face and they opened their mouths Nearly 30 years later, it still works
I can still mind the look on the face of the youngest (in a baby sling tied to my chest) when I fed him his first wild strawberries , and the delight on the eldest's when we cracked open still milky hazelnuts for him
The unholy mess of two wee boys excavating a 'clay mine' in the back garden one summer, and discovering the delight of making shapes from it and then firing them in a wee fire. Just like my bother and I had done as children.
Wandering with a stick along the tideline of a shingle beach building dens in the woods, skiddling in the burn, nettle stings and dockens, bramble jaggies and jam and cranachan too though. Tadpoles in an old basin, and tiny frogs all over the law; we couldn't cut the grass for weeks. Right enough the lawn died in the middle every summer anyway 'cos the boys camped out for weeks.
I miss having children around.

atb,
Mary

 

[Stew]

This'll be interesting to see when it comes out. Scary but interesting.

http://www.borderlinesfilmfestival....ld-thing-festival-british-cinema-hay-wye/news

[video=youtube;_4FnykqV2y4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4FnykqV2y4[/video]

 

[Tengu]

I just want to know how they quantify these things?

 

[Pterodaktyl]

I just want to know how they quantify these things?

All the survey methodology (including the questionnaire they used) is on the RSPB site here: http://www.rspb.org.uk/ourwork/policy/education/research/connection-to-nature.aspx

It strikes me that the questionnaire is biased more towards participants "feelings" about nature rather than their actual exposure to it which probably explains the surprisingly high urban score.

 

[Tengu]

Yes, if the participants are anything like some ecologists I know, They are probably safer away from the Real world

 

[Pterodaktyl]

Yes, if the participants are anything like some ecologists I know, They are probably safer away from the Real world

Not quite sure what the connection is between ecologists and 8 - 12 year old kids? In any case most of the ecologists I know (which includes my wife...) spend large chunks of their working time out in the countryside and then spend the weekends doing one form of outdoor recreation or another so I certainly wouldn't call them detached from nature.

 

[feralpig]

I think the RSPB have made some pretty peculiar assumptions from the results of their questionnaire.

To say only 13% of Welsh kids are connected with nature is preposterous.

Townsfolk, the kind who need rescuing at 7.30pm on a winters night, because it is -6, dark, and they are lost, are far more likely to strongly agree with suggestions such as, I like to hear different sounds
in nature, I like to see wild flowers
in nature, or I like to garden, than are country kids, who take all this for granted, and are comfortable in their environment. To the country kids, its every day life, not some Disney show that they leave behind when they get in the car and go home.

If I was asked that questionnaire when I was 12, they would have had me down as someone who didn't know a badger from a blackbird. At 12 years old, I was hill walking because I was told to, not because I wanted to.
I'd still got more idea about staying safe at six years old than the so called responsible adults I see looking after kids at the local outward bounds centres though.