The How To of Family Recreation

I have to start this post by apologizing that I, a photographer, have no photos to accompany my story.

As many of you know, I am a college student studying Recreation Management.  This semester I had a class called Family Recreation.  We were taught some great insight as to the benefits of recreating as a family.  I am excited to share with everyone all of the great information that was shared with me.  For now I want to share what I did for my final project.  I had to teach the class how to tailor extreme sports to be family friendly.  And I know that most of you are thinking, “yeah right.”

Society has taught all of us that once we have kids our adventures are over.  Well, we are here to prove society WRONG!  There are many ways to tailor the extreme activities that you love so that your children can come along.  I will admit that some are extreme enough that they absolutely don’t allow for the youngins, sky diving would be a good example. 

The current generation of parents is increasingly fighting this method of groupthink by taking their children outside.  We are realizing that there are great benefits to recreating as a family and to breaking away from habit.  The retail market has caught on to this trend and companies are creating more equipment to suit our desires and ease some burdens. 

Lets talk gear.  If you all are anything like me we could talk gear all day and never get bored.  Yeah, I’m a geek.  With that in mind I will try and keep this simple and precise.   With any piece of gear I will always tell people to try it on and try it out before committing to purchasing it, REI and Backcountry.com are great resources for this with their 100% satisfaction guarantee.  Companies are ever increasingly making child carriers, high performance outerwear, sleeping bags, technical equipment, compostable diapers, and accessories all for your little adventurers!  I could go on, and on, and on about what all is out there, but I shall spare you.  Maybe that would be a good follow-up post?  Or two?........ or three?

So, we know the gear is out there to make our adventure less likely of a total fail.  But, the BIG main factor is you.  Yes you, your own desire to share what you love with your posterity.  In order for all of this to work you not only need to have the desire to share, but the willingness to slow down.  You need to be willing to take things at their pace.  One of the best tidbits of advice we were ever given was to be flexible, some days you will spend hours getting the kids prepped and hiking out to the crag just in time for them to be done with it all and want to go home.  To make a pleasant experience for our kids we have to be willing to put our own goals and desires aside and go home if needed.  These types of outings are inevitable, but that crag is not going anywhere, there will always be another day.  If you are able to make the experience pleasant for your kids then there is a chance that they will develop a passion for it as well. 

Some people may ask, “What do I do if I have a child with special needs?” or “What if Grandma wants to come along?”  With these scenarios we need to be flexible and willing to adapt to accommodate their needs.  Do what you can to get them right in the action or even a part of it.  Communicate with them as to their individual comfort level of participation.  Try not to limit or label them.  You would be surprised as to what they are capable of.

In all, getting your family active in extreme sports requires patience and selflessness.  It opens the opportunity for us to serve our partner and children while building lasting memories and bonds.

On top of being flexible we need to modify our activities to accommodate our little one’s.  For example, we LOVE to rock climb.  Before Ky came along we would hike out to remote crags with exposed bases.  Now that we have a little one in tow, we seek out the closer crags with child friendly bases.  We even look for a base that may even be possible for little Ky to scale a ways up in his harness and helmet.  If we were to head out rafting we would shoot for a moderate river with nothing over Class 3.  When we take Ky skiing the entire day becomes about him and his experience, it’s not about the deep pow or steep terrain. 

We take Ky with us on our adventures in hopes that he will grow up loving what we do, the fact that we do all of these things as a family unit brings us all closer together and strengthens our family bonds.  We believe the saying, “A family that plays together stays together.”