"Four Things Every Boy Needs"

[mercysfree]

...Raising the three we have, we have to limit their "woods" time greatly since they seem to not have the sense to find their way home. I have had 3 adventures searching for them. So we have woods at the house. Outside time is vital. Everyone is surprised how much they read and spend outside. I explain we limit their electronic time to one hour a day and boredom takes care of the rest.

Great blog post.

Isn't it amazing how doing real things can be preferred over electronics?

We live on the edge of miles of wilderness and also went National Forest camping. For the getting lost problem, may I suggest teaching buddies and a whistle system? One signal for "where are you?" Another for "come home." Plus "sos." Even a 3yo can learn these. This worked for us for younger children. For olders, gifts of topographic maps, compasses, headlamps, water filters, etc. All our seven children spent many hours wandering.

[Josh]

My statement was that most families aren’t equipped to start fostering older children and teens.

[Signtist]

I don't believe every boy needs those exact four things. I think he needs what those four things represent, tho.

[JimFoxvog]

But a park is everybody in the city's woods. A boy needs a woods of his own. Outfitted with nothing more than his imagination, a boy can spend countless happy hours in a woods. He could be Daniel Boone, Robin Hood or Robinson Crusoe all in the same day without any problem at all.

Thing 2. A Creek
I can't imagine how any boy can grow up properly without spending half of his summer submerged in a creek. One summer we built a small raft and were Huck Finn and Jim on the Mississippi.Somewhere back in the archives is a whole post on this subject entitled "The Old Swimmin' Hole". We spent countless happy hours in the creek. Every boy needs one.

This seems to essentially be an argument that what a boy needs is to be descended from wealthy land-owners.

Stop and consider for a bit that it is simply not practical for most families to provide a private forest and a private waterway to their children.

Yes. It depends on the park. In the Washington DC area, where I grew up, there is Rock Creek Park (2.7 square miles in DC alone, but also well into Maryland), that passed less than a half-mile from my house. Much of it was pathless woods, so it was easy to find private areas. It would be great if every city had near-wilderness areas.

[Aurien]

Girls need these things, too.

I used to spend as much time as possible wandering with the goats. One childhood summer, I painstakingly counted 13,000 and some odd tadpoles as I transferred them from one pond to another.

As for mamas, we just need to get over mud, hatchets, and the snakes thrust in our faces with an eager, "Is this kind poisonous, Ma?"

I'm fine with mud and hatchets, but keep the snakes away!
I was thinking the same thing about girls needing these things too. I didn't have a sister until I was 14, I was homeschooled, and there were no girls my age in my extended family or our church so I grew up playing with boys.

[Aurien]

Yet we live in a country of 330 million people, and there isn’t enough resources to give every family its own farm. And there’s no family unit for a lot of them to even have a dad at home. 40% of births now are to unwed mothers (CDC 2017)

We will never be able to fix these broken family units. Nor will be able to create 100 million farms for boys to play on.

So how do we go forward sharing the gospel and ministry of reconciliation with energetic boys raised by mothers cooped up in apartment? I happen to know a few of these mothers and boys. They are busy working, earning $12/hr just to barely be able to pay rent and bills each month.

What’s Jesus look like here? I never saw Jesus go out and create some idyllic rural lifestyle. He did something radically different.

If all Christians would help a couple boys it would impact the next generation.

I heard a speaker last year say if one family in every Christian church in American would foster. It would take care of the need for foster parents in America. And I think it’s the same with this problem do what you can in the communities you’re a part of. Mike has some great ideas. Make it possible for boys to attend summer camps. If you have a property with a woods and creek share it.

This fostering statistic seems surprising to me. If that is accurate there are a lot less people fostering than I assume...... I'm surprised one family per Christian church would be enough. We are part of a Midwest Church here in Ontario and I can think of 5 families that are fostering or have in the last 5 years. This includes ourselves and my in-laws.
Working with the Children's Aid Organization, it is obvious the need is incredible, and the situations some children are subjected to, just so sad.

This is a bunny trail for this thread I realize. But I read a lot of things here that indicate numerous posters seem to think all Conservative Mennonites either have been abused or had someone close to them abused, and things are so out of control in the CA circles. This just isn't the case for everyone.

Having a fair bit of contact with "outside" unfortunate children, I think we have so much to thank our heritage and culture for, that gets overlooked way too much when we get caught up in pointing out all the faults in different groups with a broad brush.
Yes I know of undesirable situations in annabaptist homes. Yes it is very disturbing. Yes it needs to be addressed. I am not in favour of letting the church silence victims. But let's remember not to throw out the baby (our conservative heritage) with the bath water (our way of doing church and life in general), to make room for a completely new and different, unproven but glamorized, way of doing things.

Wow how did I end up here..... If this doesn't fit the thread I guess it can be moved or deleted.

I've seen that comment about one family in every church and foster kids before. So today I finally looked up some statistics.
Hartford Institute for Religious Research says, "Hartford Institute estimates there are roughly 350,000 religious congregations in the United States. This estimate relies on the RCMS 2010 religious congregations census. Of those, about 314,000 are Protestant and other Christian churches, and 24,000 are Catholic and Orthodox churches. Non-Christian religious congregations are estimated at about 12,000."
Child Welfare Information Gateway says, "On September 30, 2017, there were an estimated 442,995 children in foster care."

[hillperson]

Thanks.