Kids Getting Lost in the Great Indoors

[accadacca]

I saw a story on KSL TV today. This was brought up in relation to the outdoor retail show that is going on this week in Salt Lake City. Of course the younger generation is very important to these companies. They had a dinner the first night where this was discussed in great detail. I could not find the story on ksl.com, so I asked Google and found a few older articles. My kids will certainly be raised in the outdoors and videos games will be very limited.

On a recent nature walk near her home in Gaithersburg, her younger son, 6, was unimpressed, pleading, "I just want to go back to civilization." Her older son, at 13, has made it clear he prefers PlayStation.

Getting Lost in the Great Indoors

Childhood pastimes are increasingly moving indoors

[JP]

Man, when I was younger staying inside for a minute was too long, this is truly a sad generation. It falls back to the parents, not limiting the time spent in front of those damn games.

[larblah]

I agree, my kids are all older teens now, but we never made a big deal out of games. So it never became a big deal.

[accadacca]

Come on. No comments on this?

[jfeiro]

Sad........very sad, When i was a kid, i couldn't imagine staying inside. I don't have any kids but my wife has 5, all grown now. Anyway, I always ask them if they want to go when i go riding, hiking, camping whatever and they always ask, "what for, there's nothing to do"............once again, sad.

[TreeHugger]

The outdoor retailers say the younger generation is very important to them but when our Adventure Coordinator went to the Outdoor Retailer's Show she found just the opposite to be true.

Our school has a large outdoor adventure component where we take kids out camping and hiking and snowshoeing, etc. regularly. We are creating life long outdoor enthusiasts. When Amy went to the show, she found a couple of interesting things: 1. When she hid her non profit badge the retailers were all over her - schmoozing her up and such, because they thought she was a buyer. Then, 2. When she was asked for her badge so they could scan it, and realized she was from a non profit school, she pretty much immediately got a "here's my card, thanks for stopping by" brush off.

So the question might be posed: How many outdoor companies and businesses are willing to put their money where their mouths are?

[accadacca]

The outdoor retailers say the younger generation is very important to them but when our Adventure Coordinator went to the Outdoor Retailer's Show she found just the opposite to be true.

Our school has a large outdoor adventure component where we take kids out camping and hiking and snowshoeing, etc. regularly. We are creating life long outdoor enthusiasts. When Amy went to the show, she found a couple of interesting things: 1. When she hid her non profit badge the retailers were all over her - schmoozing her up and such, because they thought she was a buyer. Then, 2. When she was asked for her badge so they could scan it, and realized she was from a non profit school, she pretty much immediately got a "here's my card, thanks for stopping by" brush off.

So the question might be posed: How many outdoor companies and businesses are willing to put their money where their mouths are?

Yeah, thats lame. They should care about the younger crowd if they know what's good for them. That is cool that you take them out in the outdoors. I don't have anything against video games and I know a lot of peeps play them on here. I just like to see a balance. Now days there doesn't seem to be much with some kids.