We went down to The Goose for a coffee this afternoon. Sport Boy had been bugging us for a while to hit him some cricket catches so before we went home we found some shade on the beachfront and I hit him some catches. All was going well until a high ball got stuck in one of the Fir Trees. I threw the bat up in an effort to dislodge it and the tree saw it's opportunity to completely thwart our game by grabbing the bat too. No ball, no bat, no game.I lifted Sport Boy up so he could climb the tree and get them down only to discover that he had never climbed a tree before!!!
How can this be?
How can an active little boy reach the age of 9 never having climbed a tree?
Greg and I both commented that we spent much of our childhood climbing trees.
I took it for granted that my kids climbed trees too but obviously I was wrong.
This was a call to arms. An immediate response was required to further my son's education and broaden his horizons.
I hoisted him up into the tree and he began his tentative ascent, questioning whether the branches would break and what if he slipped and various other comments borne of nervousness and lack of experience.
We coached him further up until he reached the branch he needed and he hesitantly began shaking the it in order to dislodge the ball. We persuaded him to move a little further out from the trunk in order to get more leverage and pacified his concerns with reassurances that the branches would not break. Sport Boy weighs about 20 kilos ringing wet so there was no danger of his weight being too much for the tree to bear. Eventually he knocked the ball and the bat free.
How do I get down he asked?
Same way you got up, climb and I'll lift you out when you get to the bottom branch.
He managed quite well, even pausing to pose for a photo as you can see.
Back on terra firma he exclaimed a number of times and confided his fears and his excitement at his adventure.
I won't assume again my kids are familiar with the value of such a simple childhood pleasure as climbing a tree.
A pox on you PlayStation!
4 comments:
Perhaps not a good "learning" tree, but at least there are plenty of branches.
Amazing to hear of a boy having never climbed a tree.
i resent your generalization, father, i spent every moment i could spend climbing without getting in trouble, and a few avoiding it
i climbed loads of trees!! and jordan was climbing cricket nets at the age of three!! i also remember him jumping between two trees and tearing the back of his leg open requiring stitches at the creek near nans old place. continue paulies education tho, cliff jumping is also right up there with tree climbing, that and jumps on bikes!!
hey zac, do you remember the time mum and dad were out, while we were living in heathridge, and we were jumping from shed to shed? and how i did it, and put the big dent in the gutter?
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