Bring Out the Wild in Your Child

Jenny/ March 7, 2020/ Family Life

I hear you laughing right now. You’re laughing because your kids are SO wild! Why on earth would you ever want to encourage wildness? But if want to be honest there are different kinds of wildness. The kind that drives you nuts and the kind that delights and helps your child grow.

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What is the wild you want to promote?

We all know that nutsy energy that kids get that drive you UP.THE.WALL! That is exactly what we don’t want. It comes usually from a few things namely being inside too much, tiredness and too much sugar.

Then there’s the other kind of wildness. This is the wildness that makes our kids climb trees, chop down brush and built forts.  Its the wildness that invigorates your kids and gives them the drive to complete a difficult project.

How do you encourage this type of wildness?

There are so many things vying for our kid’s attention and lets be honest, many of them are junk! My son hears all about video games from his friends and guess what? He wants them! But guess what else? I’m the mean mom and we’ve said no. Why? After all my research I just can’t find anything that backs up a good reason to use these. In fact, everything I find says the exact opposite! Video games are harmful to the brain and stimulate the child to be frustrated, and agitated since their body is put into a constant fight or flight mode with no real outlet. So we say no, even in the face of opposition.

Read “Into the Wild” for more practical help on raising kids in Creation!

But we do say yes to certain things too! We say yes to exploring, adventuring, movies with an adventurous spirit. We say yes to some “dangerous” exploits like learning to chop down trees with an ax, hunting, fishing, skinning.

We encourage wildness within boundaries.

Yes that sounds kinda funny I guess but its true. If for example, my kids want to learn to mountain climb I’m not going to say “go for it” and turn them loose. Neither am I going to freak and tell them NO! Instead we’re going to get them the proper equipment and training to do the dangerous stuff safely! Another great example is our kids are wanting a zip line through the woods. But we’re not going to cobble something together. We’re going to buy the proper stuff to put up a sturdy, safe 200 foot zip line. It will give them great adventure but not break their necks. Win, win!!

What does this do for your kids?

You may be wondering exactly how does this really benefit me and my kids?  I’m glad you asked! This type of lifestyle has so many perks.  One is the sense of independence your children gain. You don’t want your 30 year old adult kids living at home and this will help keep that from happening.  When they are so grounded in conquering new territory they will not be content to depend on you for security. This is good!!

Remember…

We must be so careful as parents that we don’t hold our children too closely when we should be letting go. Remember we are raising adults! Protect them from the things that destroy their souls like wrong friends and pornography but set them FREE to explore the things that give them external bumps and bruises. In doing so, you’ll raise wholesome children who thrive on hardship and adversity! Bring out the WILD in your child!