Take a Child Outside Week

Sometimes a phrase floats around during the holiday season, "If Christians are so charitable, why they only seem to care about the poor and needy during Christmas and Thanksgiving?"

A similar phrase can be asked about many parents these days, "If parents love their children so much, why would they need to be prompted once a year to send them outside?"

In yet one more attempt to remind parents that their children have needs, the Museum of Natural Sciences in North Carolina has initiated the Take a Child outside Week program. According to their website at Takeachildoutside.org (click here) the point is not to simply get kids outside on Take a Child Outside Week and play sports, where their focus will be on the game, but to get the children to appreciate the natural world around them.

A year after the Take a Child Outside Week began, Officials in several states and over 250 organizations have begun urging parents to take part in the annual event. Citing rising numbers of obesity in children, supporters of Take a Child Outside Week say that the experience will only prove beneficial.

Liz Baird is the director of school programs with the Museum of Natural Sciences in Raleigh and is responsible for coming up with the idea of Take a Child Outside Week. The idea came to her when she realized that the museum was a fake version of the outdoors and thus created limitations that the Take a Child Outside Week program is intended to circumvent.

Officials of Missouri's state parks cite a drop in visitation in the past few years and hope that the Take a Child Outside Week will reinvigorate attendance. More details can be found at Ap.google.net, or just click here.

The biggest question, of course, is why do parents need to put an annual "play date" on the calendar for their children? Take a Child Outside Week should not exist. Now that Take a Child Outside Week does exist, and officials are supporting it, how long before the program becomes a law? How long before Take a Child Outside Week becomes a mandatory requirement to receive insurance?

Maybe Take a Child Outside Week is only the beginning of a series of measures that will force parents to reclaim responsibility for their children's well being including education and health. It is a shame on parents all across the United States of America that the Take a Child Outside Week exists.