Outwild Discovery Series: Parenting in the Great Outdoors
This series was co-created by Matt Inman and Outwild.
Welcome to the second blog in our Discovery Series!
This is where we get to know upcoming speakers from our monthly online events. This month's event is a panel on Parenting in the Outdoors with Becca Caldwell, Mario Molina, & Jenny Jurek. Here’s a bit about our panelists:
Becca Caldwell:
Climber and mountain biker trying to get out as much as she can with her four and seven year-olds. Becca and her husband Tommy have traveled with kids from Patagonia to Europe and "van-life'd" throughout the US. She believes nature is the educational foundation and playground a kid can have.
Mario Molina:
An avid alpinist, snowboarder, mountain biker, guide, and life adventurer, Mario Molina knows the important role adventure plays in influencing our passion to protect the places and lifestyles we love from climate change. Raising a future voter to be an advocate for the climate starts with getting out and enjoying the POW. Mario is an active and outdoorsy parent who prioritizes adventure with his daughter, whether in the backyard building a snowman, camping, or ski slopes.
Jenny Jurek:
Runner, climber, and designer trying to pursue her love of adventure and innovation with two small groms in tow. Jenny co-wrote the NY Times bestseller NORTH with her husband Scott, and together they strive to show their kids the joys of elective suffering in the great outdoors.
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Ahead of the panel, we asked Mario and Jenny two questions about parenting in the great outdoors. Check their answers below:
Many parents don’t take their kids on adventures because they believe the outdoors to be unsafe or prefer to keep their kiddos on a more regimented schedule. What are some ways you’ve had to think outside the box and go against the status quo of conventional parenting wisdom?
Mario: I believe parenting styles are extremely personal and everyone has to find out what that journey looks like for themselves and their family. There seem to be two general schools of thought: one that says our role as parents is to protect our children from the world and pave the way for them as much as we can and another that says the best we can do is to prepare them for the world. Growing up in a single parent household in Guatemala in the 80’s, I was given a lot of freedom (probably more than I’d be comfortable giving my own kids), but that also helped me learn how to navigate uncertainty and unexpected situations from an early age. For me, I believe my role is to intervene and mitigate the risk of serious injury or death. But the value of placing my kids in as many different outdoor environments and teaching them as many skills as I can to both navigate in them AND enjoy them, far outweighs the risk of cuts, bruises, germs, and the occasional bloody lip. I also see these situations and environments as the best opportunities to instill the ethos in them that I’d like for them to carry forward in all aspects of their life: grit, determination, discipline, teamwork, respect for forces greater than you, and a learning mentality. I suppose I haven’t had to think outside the box around conventional parenting wisdom because I never really got into the box.
Jenny: A lot of outdoor adventures can be viewed as “unsafe,” with or without kids! But when you know your abilities and your limits, I believe we can recreate safely and make smart decisions for the family in nature. When Raven was three months old, we hiked across the Grand Canyon with her in one day, from the South Rim to the North Rim. Scott and I felt comfortable with the risks and felt it was reasonable for us. We all had a great day! You don’t have to stop doing what you love, you just have to be prepared to go at a different pace and take extra precautions.
What was a recent experience where your kids turned the tables and taught YOU a valuable lesson while recreating outdoors?
Mario: It happens regularly, but most often it’s the attention to detail. In her book, the Philosophical Baby, Alyson Gopnkik explains that babies have an abundance of chemicals called cholinergic transmitters, which allow neurons to transfer information faster. As we grow older, we develop inhibitors to that transmitter that help us voluntarily direct our attention, but that comes at the cost of processing more information about our environment. The absence of those inhibitors are why babies and toddlers are so easily distracted, but also so curious and attentive. My daughter will notice an insect crawling underneath an Aster, notice the smoothness of a rock’s surface, or be able to recall what color hat someone we passed on the trail was wearing hours later. It’s a valuable lesson in slowing down and allowing myself to relax my focus and attention, to shift from being objective driven and take in as much of the full experience and vibrance of what is going on outside as I can.
Jenny: The biggest lesson I’ve learned from the kids is that nature is enough. Sometimes I get caught up in planning fun adventures of climbing or skiing but really, just being outside in the wild is enough to make them so happy. A simple trail walk or playing near a creek can provide endless hours of observation and entertainment. These kids don’t need much, just get them outside!
Thanks Jenny & Mario! We can’t wait to hear more tonight. Missed the live event? A drop in purchase will allow you access to our event recording!