Hunting Traditions Sag As Land, Desire Disappear

[jdmidwest]

Interesting link, pretty well sums it up. Younger generations are more involved in facebook than the outdoors. Parents have less time to take kids out and enjoy the great outdoors. Too many sporting events to knock off and take the kids hunting and fishing, just soccer, little league, football, and others.

Hunting Traditions sag as land, desire disappear.

[fishinwrench]

Yep, my daughter goes to a lake area high school...nobody else she knows at school fishes or hunts.

Who ever heard of a kid raised on a lake...that doesn't fish ? They all swim real well though, at least that's a plus.

[Justin Spencer]

Here in Dora hunting and fishing are still a big deal. The Monday after opening of deer season is always a day off of school, and alot of the big bucks are killed by the kids during youth season. We don't have soccer, gymnastics, football, debate, etc. like the kids in the bigger towns have. Most of the kids here live on a few acres or more where they have hunted and fished with family members since they could crawl. My 7 year old cried when I told him I wouldn't let him deer hunt this year. He was sad because so many of his first grade classmates were killing deer (girls included). I compromised and took him out armed with a bb gun (no way is he ready to shoot a big gun), and even watched him stalk within 30 yards of a doe, where he got off 3 offhand shots before she spooked. He fly fishes and really enjoys the outdoors, while at the same time spending way to much time messing around on the computer teaching me how to edit pictures and videos. It comes down to what the parents want to emphasize and unfortunately hunting and the outdoors take a backseat to other activities where the kids can just be dropped off and picked up later.

[Gavin]

Yep. Its up to us....I've never been much on hunting...did plenty of it with my dad & grandpa. I enjoy hunting, but I'd rather fish....My girls will get plenty of firearms training, and go hunting if they want to...Still plenty of time for that.....My oldest girl is 3.5 and she's a pretty good reel er inner at this point....think she reeled in 10-12 this year...18 month old has yet to catch....but she knows what a fish is, and she is facinated by fishing stuff....I think that both will do really well next year. Cheers.

[ness]

Out here in the 'burbs there are a whole lot of parents out there pushing their kids, and many seem to take pride in talking about their brutal schedules -- this practice, that tournament, whatever. I've always been of the mind that kids with too much to do, especially sports, are missing out on the 'kid' stuff, so we've always limited that to one sport at a time.

Where we live there's a lot of undeveloped land around, and we've always taken time to get out and knock around on it. My babies have been fishing since they were very young, and the boys hunting since they were about 12. Problem for me now is that they're teenagers, and hanging out with dad ranks below almost everything. But I know that's just part of the deal, and they'll come back around someday.

Every once in a while I'll get a surprise though: in October we did our annual family get-together at Roaring River, and my 100% girl daughter told me she wanted to fly fish -- which we haven;t done together in several years. Well, the trout gods were smiling on us because she hooked and/or landed about a half-dozen fish in an hour, all on a leetle, tiny white Cahill. Probably another half-dozen looked real hard or took it and spit it. It is always a thrill for me when that happens, but watching her getting thrilled was the best part.

Just gotta plant the seed, take them with you when you can, don't make them go if they don't want to, give them something else to do when they're done, and don't make it about yourself.

It's gonna be harder and harder to keep the outdoor traditions alive the way things are going though. Rural-area economics have changed so dramatically that they support fewer and fewer people. Small/medium-sized farms just don't support a family on their own. The incredibly cheap foreign labor tempts business to send it overseas, rather than to the small towns. It's sad.

[Trout Commander]

unfortunately hunting and the outdoors take a backseat to other activities where the kids can just be dropped off and picked up later.

You mean it was wrong of me to drop my 4 year old off in the woods with my ar15 and a box of ammo for youth season????

Joking aside, your statement, Justin, is sadly true. Fortunately my son has taking a liking to everything outdoors he has experienced so far. When we are stuck in Springfield for the weekend and even through the week his two of his three favorite places to go are lake Springfield and Bass Pro (behind the dancing rat with bad pizza).

[Justin Spencer]

Just gotta plant the seed, take them with you when you can, don't make them go if they don't want to, give them something else to do when they're done, and don't make it about yourself.

Well said Ness, with limited time it can be tough to not make it about yourself. I try to think back on how sad I was when my dad would go on his "adult" float trips without me. We all need our outdoor times without the kids but when I have the option (whether I really want to or not) I try to take them if they want to go. I didn't kill a deer with my rifle this year because Eli wanted to come each time we went. Could have killed one spike, but all the does spotted or heard us rustling around in the stand before they stepped out for clear shots. Good learning experience for the boy, and while I still need some meat I really don't care much about the killing so the hunting was some of the best of my life.

The incredibly cheap foreign labor tempts business to send it overseas, rather than to the small towns.

Sad but true. With this in mind I think we should all try to shop the smaller businesses in our small towns this Christmas season. We won't hurt the big boys like Wal-mart (who we unfortunately rely on to help our counties and towns) but we can make a difference to the small town businesses that rely on this time of year to stay in business. Since most of us are men we don't know what we're doing when it comes to Christmas presents anyway we might as well spend our money where it can help others.