The Wild World Beyond the Playing Field

San Francisco ChronicleBy Regan McMahon

Regan McMahon is deputy book editor of the San Francisco Chronicle and the author of “Revolution in the Bleachers: How Parents Can Take Back Family Life in a World Gone Crazy Over Youth Sports”, published April 19 by Gotham Books.


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When I think about youth sports and nature in the same breath, an image comes instantly to mind. It’s Saturday morning, and my daughter, at age 9, is playing soccer on a field in ruggedly beautiful Shepherd Canyon, which cuts a swath through the Oakland hills above San Francisco Bay. The girls are good enough to win but young enough to be easily distracted. Suddenly one girl, then all of her teammates and soon their opponents turn their heads toward the green slopes of the canyon, where a herd of goats (part of an underbrush abatement program) is busy munching the long grasses, moving in unison like a school of fish out of water.

Awed and captivated by this intrusion just beyond the white boundary lines of the field, the kids lose their focus and have to be reeled back in by their coaches. It is a funny, charming moment, showing how the lure of nature can break through the confines of highly structured play.

It is sad to contemplate how much time kids spend on that field compared to how little time they spend exploring the canyon, walking its paths and hiking its trails, communing with goats, squirrels, birds, insects and more. How many hours are spent on the soccer field or in the basketball gym compared to those wandering the neighborhood on foot or riding a bike, playing in the back yard or down the street at the park?

Today’s kids are long on organized sports and short on unstructured play outdoors. Parents are happy to have their kids involved in healthy exercise in a safe, adult-monitored activity, so they might not perceive a problem. But kids whose only experience of nature is playing sports on a manicured lawn – or worse, artificial turf – are missing out. Nature is a laboratory for curiosity. The shortest walk can reveal never-before-seen wonders: live things, dead things, flora and fauna.

I grew up near an arroyo in sunny Southern California with a trickle of a creek down the center that kept me endlessly entertained as I hunted for the tadpoles, frogs, worms and lizards that made their home there. On weekends my parents might take me to the ocean, the desert or the mountains – we were blessed to be no more than an hour’s drive from each – and I learned how it felt to be far away from the paved world of the city. But today’s kids are often tied to a demanding sports schedule that leaves them few possibilities for adventures in nature or even a visit to Grandma’s. And when summer comes, many kids sign up for one or more sports training camps to improve skills for the next season rather than attend a traditional nature camp in the forest with canoeing and campfires and sleeping under the stars.

I think we have to ask ourselves: What kind of childhood are we giving our children? We all know the numerous and undeniable benefits of youth sports, from staying physically fit to learning discipline and teamwork. But there are other things to learn about in childhood as well, like our relationship to the earth and the living things around us. The outdoors can be a teacher, inspiring us to explore, to wonder, to listen, to dream, to play fantasy games and build forts and sand castles, to dig holes and float sticks down streams and skip rocks across water. In those moments, we can feel powerful in a different way from when we score a point or catch a pass. It’s not that it’s better, but it’s different. And our children deserve lots of different experiences. Remember when the goal of parenting was to develop a well-rounded child? That concept seems to be getting lost in the hyped-up quest for excellence and achievement that characterizes childhood these days.

For my son’s 16th birthday this year, we piled a bunch of boys and girls in two cars and drove to the beach an hour from our house. These kids lead busy, high-pressured lives. Some play a sport for their high school. It had been a long time since they’d set foot on this beach so close to where they live. Between playing Frisbee, building a sand castle and jumping in the waves, they recalled how much they loved coming here with their families when they were little, and said they hadn’t realized how much they miss it.

As parents, let’s not forget the value of getting kids out in the great outdoors. Show them a place where things grow wild, no one’s keeping score and they’ll have memories to last a lifetime.

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