Ep 58: The Great Outdoors and Teens

Linda McGurk, author of There's No Such Thing As Bad Weather,
clues us in on the surprising benefits of outdoor time...and how
to get your kid out there in the first place!


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Full show notes


After another long day of quarantine, you exit your office and
see your two teenagers sitting on the couch, engrossed in their
phones. How can they look at the screen for so long? If you were
them, you’d be running around outside, playing games with
friends. You step towards the door, adn thoughts of fresh air run
through your head. Outside, a cool breeze floats down the street,
easing the feel of the warm afternoon sun. You think to yourself,
we ought to be spending more time outside as a family.


In theory, getting the family out for a day of fun should be an
easy task. In practice, though, you know it isn’t easy. How can
you get your kids to recognize the importance of outdoor
activities for a teenager if you can barely get them to put down
their phone?


In the pre-internet era, you would try to find any reason to get
out the front door. Nobody wanted to hang out at home under the
watchful eye of parental supervision. Nowadays, the internet has
transformed social life onto a convenient little screen, allowing
friends to connect from the comfort of the couch. In turn, the
outdoor experience has become lost to many teens. How can parents
help reintroduce the importance of outdoor activities for a
teenager?


Glad you asked! This week, TTT hosts Linda
McGurk, an expert on both the outdoors and parenting.
Linda runs the blog, Rain or Shine Mamma, where she shares her
tips for maintaining her outdoor lifestyle with children. She
also wrote the book, There’s No Such Thing As Bad Weather: A
Scandinavian Mom’s Secrets for Raising Healthy, Resilient and
Confident Kids.


Growing up in Sweden, Linda was introduced to the outdoors at a
young age. In the U.S. she fell in love with the landscape, but
was shocked at how often parents kept their kids indoors. Drawing
on her Scandinavian childhood, she began to raise her kids in
harmony with nature to help them recognize the importance of the
outdoors. Here’s an in-depth look at just one of Linda’s tricks
to reintroducing the importance of outdoor activities for a
teenager.


Screen-Free Sundays


The concept of Screen-Free Sundays is a little surprising to
hear. These days, one can barely go an hour without looking at a
screen, whether it be a tablet, phone, or TV. How are teens going
to spend a whole day without their screens? How can you introduce
them to the importance of outdoor activities for a teenager?


The goal of Screen-Free Sundays isn’t to pry screens for the
hands of your teens. Rather, the goal is to regulate screen time
to prevent teens from staying glued to the couch for 5 hours
straight. Linda notes that the concept of Screen-Free Sundays,
probably won’t go over well when you first bring it up,
especially if your teens normally have unrestrained access to
devices on a normal Sunday.


Linda did not have immediate success when initiating the first
couple Screen-Free Sundays. Her youngest daughter fought the
immediate changes to her lifestyle while Linda remained steadfast
to having a screen free day. The refusal of either side to
compromise on the screen free policy caused disaster in the
McGurk household. “It was hard to go ‘cold turkey,’” McGurk says.


Linda was able to find common ground with her children with
devices on Sunday through two distinct approaches. By using these
techniques, Screen-Free Sundays became a hit as the importance of
outdoor activities for a teenager became realized by both the
kids and the parents. Now, Linda enjoys planning which excursion
to go on every weekend. In summer popular activities are picnics
or hikes, while the winter provides a great atmosphere for
weekend ice-skating.


It’s wonderful to hear about how successful Linda was when
implementing her strategies to get everyone outside. But what
were the strategies Linda used that led to success? And how can
you help your kids recognize the importance of outdoor activities
for a teenager?


Tip #1: Confidence in Compromise


Initially, Linda struggled to implement Screen-Free Sundays with
her family. We all know it’s challenging to get people off their
phones and demonstrate the importance of outdoor activities for a
teenager, but in practice it can be hard to think up ideas to get
everyone off the screen and outside.


Linda had more success when she compromised and allowed her teens
to have some screen time on Screen-Free Sundays. The trick was to
gradually phase out screen time for her teens. This allowed the
whole family to ease into the screen-free lifestyle. Initially,
she allowed her daughter to watch her favorite TV show as her
designated screen time. This helped her daughter get through the
day without causing an outburst of anger or tears.


Parents can apply this strategy to their implementation of
Screen-Free Sundays. Instead of demanding everyone to stay off
screens the whole day, perhaps you could restrict screen time to
an hour of the day instead of forcing everyone to stay off the
whole day. Alternatively, parents can restrict screen time to a
single device for a set time period. No matter what method you
choose, easing teens into Screen-Free Sundays is a must if you
want to demonstrate the importance of outdoor activities for a
teenager.


Tip #2: Inclusive Ideas


To emphasize the importance of outdoor activities for a teenager,
it’s important to get the whole family involved in planning
Screen-Free Sundays. A trick to getting the teens on board, Linda
says, is to have them write down ideas on sticky notes for
screen-free weekend activities. The week before, a note is drawn
from a bowl to allow everyone a chance to plan for the Sunday.
Having a bowl of ideas is crucial because it engages the whole
family for input on activities during Screen-Free Sundays.


The Idea Jar helped engage Linda’s kids when it came to
Screen-Free Sundays. The opportunity to have input into the
family’s plan helped everyone buy into the concept of going
without a screen for a day. The bowl gave a voice to her kids,
allowing them to feel included and valued in family discussions.
The jar also motivated her kids to get off the couch and reminded
them the importance of outdoor activities for a teenager.


While it might seem fun to implement an Idea Jar for the family
to use, the jar gets at a core function of parent-teen relations:
communication. Parents and teens often have trouble communicating
because teens believe they deserve more autonomy and
responsibility and want adults to treat their voice as equal in
discourse. The Idea Jar is great because it creates a platform
for equal discourse that is less likely to result in a yelling
match between parents and teens.


While Screen-Free Sundays can be one solution to demonstrating
the importance of outdoor activities for a teenager, it might not
be the right solution for your family. In the rest of the
podcast, Linda and Andy discuss many additional concepts to help
you get your teens outside. Some additional concept...