Last night I attended a parent meeting which focused on preparation for a school camp that is scheduled for June 2018. I will be attending this camp as a parent-helper.
We are fortunate to live in a community within Hawke’s Bay which boasts a core of what I think of as “old school Kiwi country people“. Definition of this demographic ? Easy, these people:
a) Are practical.
b) Are realistic.
c) Have grown-up acquiring values (and now impart to their children these same values) such as: empathy, friendliness, firm but fair/ reasonable.
The teacher who is leading this very cool 3 day adventure did a great job of presenting the parameters of the well-planned camp – including a comprehensive matrix of identified risks and associated risk mitigation measures. It was at the end of this presentation that I started to feel that something hadn’t been addressed, so I asked the question “is it O.K. for the attending parents to encourage the kids to enjoy themselves and have a bit of fun while on camp ?“.
The more that legislation and regulation invades most areas of our lives as adults I feel that we tend to (inadvertently or not) pass-on a certain amount of “adhere/ comply or be prepared to suffer the consequences” attitude/ expectations to our children. This does nothing to encourage the development of confident kids who are prepared to take reasonable risks in life.
I think it is really important that as adults:
a) We remember to have some fun ourselves, as we walk our path in life; and
b) We remember to show developing young people that it is most certainly O.K. for them to feel/ show enjoyment and have some fun in their lives.
As a global community, it would be a very sad day indeed to see “fun” squeezed-out of human life.