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Family Centered Fun – Northern Gentleman

As a rule, I try to avoid saying things to my children that begin with the preface “In my day…”, but in all honestly, my childhood was much different than theirs. I didn’t have an iPod, a cell phone or a tablet. I did have a monochrome GameBoy that had a battery life of about 4 hours and an original Nintendo Entertainment System (which I still have in my office) that was hooked up to my black and white TV. As a result of telling my kids this, they firmly believe that I grew up in the Stone Age.

I’ve tried to explain to my children that my childhood wasn’t centred around the TV or some other electronic device. My childhood was spend outside from sun-up to sundown, running around, making up my own games. Using my imagination. Once the street lights came on, I’d go inside and play Risk, Monopoly, Scrabble or crib with my parents and grandparents.

As a parent, I’ve been struggling to separate the kids from their dependency on external stimulation and return to a more family-centric and imagination-based approach to fun. That’s why when Cedar Grove Lodge invited us up for Mother’s Day weekend, we jumped at the chance to spend a few days living in a log cabin in the middle of one of Mother Nature’s most beautiful gardens.

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