Have you ever been stuck in traffic and found yourself mentally escaping with the kids to long trails, green trees, and mountain lakes. Just when you think that you can smell the pine needles somebody honks and before you know it you are rushing off to the next thing on your to-do list.
I have spent the last couple of years conducting informal studies on the subject of work-life balance. Sometimes my experiments worked wonderfully, and sometimes they failed dismally. I can tell you from experience that the common element in each of the successful outcomes was great planning and time management.
If you are one of the many millions of parents who are trying to use family outdoor recreation to balance your life, here are three tips to help you carve time out of a busy schedule.
Tip #1: Buy 1-3 Guide Books about Family Outdoor Activities in Your Immediate Area
Go to your favorite bookstore. Find the "local" section. Select a couple of guidebooks that list hiking, biking, paddling, or any other outdoor activities that your family enjoys that are located within a two to three hour radius from your home.
I'm a big fan of online discount bookstores, but in my opinion the procurement of good outdoor literature is a case where the brick and mortar business model has the online model beat. Thumb through several examples side by side and select 1-3 that cover a range of activities in your radius.
Over time you may want to build a library of diverse guidebooks, but these "close to home" guides will become the cornerstone. This will set you back fifteen to forty dollars, but it's money well spent. We have a copy of California Hiking
that we have been using for over ten years. If you divide the cost by the number of times we have referenced the book, we are talking pennies per use.
Tip #2: Develop a "Stomping Ground" in a Nearby State Park, National Park, or other Public Land
Find the closest National Park, State Park, or other public land near your home and make it your "stomping ground". Your stomping ground is the place that you visit frequently enough to develop a strong familiarity. More importantly for the calendar-challenged, the stomping ground is the perfect alternative destination when the elaborate plans just can't be met.
Here's a hypothetical that illustrates the need for a stomping ground. Imagine that you have a plan for a big family hike three to four hours from home. A project at work runs you ragged all week. By the time Saturday rolls around you are exhausted, you oversleep, and one of the kids isn't feeling well. Before you know it, the original plan has broken down and can not be salvaged.
Rather than abort the plan and sacrafice the day to cable television, you can quickly turn to your stomping ground for an easy to implement alternate activity. Because of your familiarity with this area and its accessability, pulling together another plan is simple. You can reschedule the elaborate plan for another time and still salvage the day.
Prioritize a Single Activity- Block out Time
Over the course of this year, our family has been lucky enough to go on some hiking, biking, rock climbing, geocaching, animal watching, and tidal pool expeditions. It's fun to mix it up, but each activity requires a little different skill set, equipment, and learning curve. If you are a beginner or introducing young children to the outdoors, avoid taking on too much at once and burning out.
If outdoor recreation as a family is something that you are transitioning into, I recommend selecting one activity to get started. Over time feel free to mix it up but as with any new routine or habit, selecting something that you can start and develop into a routine is the key.
If you are like most people, time is scarce. I know people whose weekends are booked months in advance. It's a classic catch-22: if you don't prioritize and set aside time for recreation and leisure, you miss the benefits. This, in turn, causes you to feel like you have less time for recreation and leisure. The way out of this trap is prioritization.
Block out time in your calendar with the diligence of a doctors appointment or job interview. Consider the following:
"Parents already feel besieged by the difficulty of balancing work and family life. Understandably, they may resist the idea of adding any to-dos to their long list of chores. So here is another way of viewing the challenge: Nature as antidote. Stress reduction, greater physical health, a deeper sense of spirit, more creativity, a sense of play, even a safer life - these are the rewards that await a family when it invites more nature into children's lives."
-Richard Louv, Last Child in the Woods
Implementing these simple steps can make a huge difference in the frequency and quality of your family outdoor recreation time. When you feel like there just isn't any time to pack up the kids for that hike, turn to your local guidebooks for inspiration, head to your stomping ground for convenience, and block out your time with diligence and inflexability. Before you know it the smell of pine needles will be real.
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