Bringing Back the Olden Day Summers

Spring is here and that brings warmer weather! We can finally play outside, but do we?

I took my one-year-old to the park today and he was so happy collecting acorns, sticks, and crumpling up old leaves. It was a beautiful day and I equally enjoyed it.

Thats when I realized I got stuck in a parenting rut with my big boys and something needs to change.

I’ll admit that letting the kids watch TV or play electronics is an easy solution for me to “get stuff done”. It also gives me peace and quiet in a house full of boys. They would love to play Roblox or Fortnite all day if we let them. My big boys plan “scheduled times” to game with their friends after school. I am at the point I loathe the gadgets. It’s time to go back to the basics. The basics from when I was little, and this is on me.

I am in my 40’s so I grew up in the “olden days,” before electronics, computers and phones were a thing. It was simple and glorious. Some of my FAVORITE memories to this day were playing with the neighbor kids outside building forts, endless games of cops and robbers, tag, splashing in the puddles, playing make-believe, or lying in the grass staring at the clouds, daydreaming. I remember the neighbor kids knocking on the door asking if we could come out to play almost every day of the summer. My dad would blow the whistle when it was dark and time to come home. 

Those things will slip away from OUR kids, if we let them.

On Sunday night we came home from a weekend long baseball tournament. I really didn’t feel like being social outside anymore, but it was a beautiful evening and the kids wanted to play catch in the cul-de-sac. Slowly the neighbor kids came out to join and before we knew it, we had a game of wiffleball going on until the sun went down. *It made my momma heart SO happy.

I desperately want my boys to love the outdoors (as much as I do) and if you want that too, then it starts with us. 

My challenge to you as we enter spring and summer is to slow down on the electronics and send them outside to build forts, play in the mud puddles, make mud pies, collect bugs and caterpillars, stare at the clouds and daydream, make new neighbor friends and go on adventures. Play wiffleball, kickball, a good ol game of “Sandlot” style baseball and make the memories they can pass on to their kids someday.  

Let’s start summer 2022 going back to the basics and let it be the summer we built the most epic fort EVER!

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Richelle Byrne
Richelle is originally from Minnesota and moved to Oklahoma in 1998! She now resides in Arcadia with her husband of 15 years and 4 boys (10,8,6 and 1). She also has a stepdaughter who is 23 and is getting married this year! Richelle is going on her 20th year in the real estate industry and enjoys helping many families obtain the dream of owning or selling a home. In her free time, she enjoys being outside exploring with her family, having movie nights, lunch dates with friends and working out at Orangetheory. One day she hopes to live on some land and own a cow!

1 COMMENT

  1. Seeing the boys play outside with the neighbor kids brings me joy too! Especially in Minnesota with the hard winters it’s like waking up to the sun!

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