Adventurous Kids | Immersed in Beauty and Safe on the Edge
Raising adventurous kids is about more than preserving my lifestyle. It’s a desire to see them immersed in the beauty of the world. When I think about my purpose as a parent and the things I want to teach my children, adventure always makes the cut.
It’s not about a specific passion for rock-climbing or backpacking, it’s more about what nature has to teach us. Many of the experiences that have helped form me as a person have been outside exploring and experiencing the world.
immersed in beauty
We have a list of parenting goals on our fridge.
Most of them have to do with how we want to try to handle tantrums or pickiness around food. For example, we want to attempt to prevent hunger and fatigue thus reducing preventable tantrums. Most of our goals resulted from lessons we learned the hard way.
However, the first goal on the list is one that we came to by simply thinking about what is important to us in life. We want to help our kids experience the beauty of the world.
As easily as to-do lists and stress can consume us, nature can heal us. Both Marc and I have found solace on a hike or sitting by the ocean. If a positive outlook on life is important, one of the simplest ways we’ve found to cultivate it is time outdoors.
safe on the edge
Adventure isn’t always about taking risks, but it can be. And risk-taking can certainly teach us about bravery and confidence. I’m not suggesting risks with any sort of consequences, I’m just encouraging the character building that comes with pushing ourselves.
We wrote a pledge as part of our Kickstarter campaign for our kids book, ABCs of Adventure. It’s a pledge to raise Adventurous, Brave, and Creative children. Here’s how the section on bravery reads:
“I commit to exposing my children to adventure and risk-taking. I will teach them that fear is a good thing. And I will keep them safe so that they can be comfortable on the edge.”
What I am saying is that as parents we have the opportunity to both protect our kids from harm while encouraging them to face their fears. We can show them that often the reward of overcoming a fear is well worth it. Perhaps most importantly, we can teach them that failure is a part of the process and a necessary step on the path to success.
comfortable with fear and failure
This sort of mindset is something I am extremely grateful to my own parents for. They supported me and encouraged me every time I wanted to try something new. They never showed disappointment when I failed but always used it as a teachable moment.
It’s that aspect of parenting that made me an adult that isn’t afraid to quit my stead job to try to start a business. That quality gave me the confidence to try things like writing a kids book. For every success there are countless failures but the adventure and lessons learned along the way have been invaluable.
I’ve climbed literal and metaphorical mountains that I didn’t think I was capable. And certainly, I’ve discovered that my body and mind are capable of a lot more than I would have imagined.
I’m am far from fearless, but I like to think that I am pretty brave. I want that for my kids.
adventurous kids become creative adults
Creativity is an illusive thing. It’s something we all have as kids but some of us lose as adults. Actually, some adults just think that they lose it.
I am fascinated by and reliant upon the force of creativity so I read about it, study it, and practice it. I have even taught a few Yoga and Creativity workshops. I’ve learned that we are all capable of creativity but that we compare ourselves to someone like J.K. Rowling and thus determine that we must not be creative.
Once I had a surgeon tell me she didn’t think she was creative. Is not putting someone together the definition of creation? But it seems we think that we can be either artist or scientist, not both.
I argue that the best scientists are the ones that embrace their creativity and the best artist are the ones that take the time to understand science. My aunt is an incredible painter and sculptor. I’m pretty sure she has to think about science when figuring out how to balance her sculptures.
But I digress, I’ll save that argument for another day. Today I want to impress upon you that I believe adventurous kids will become creative adults.
our good friends fear and failure
Creativity often requires accepting failure and overcoming fear. As I just talked about in the last section, adventure helps us do just that. Adventure gives us confidence in the strength of our bodies and our minds.
Fear is both the enemy and the instigator of creativity. Many of my best ideas have come from a deep fear but that same fear almost preventing me from acting. Fear still prevents me from doing things I feel I was born to do but the more practice I have facing my fears the better I get at it.
Often I think about climbing this way. I used to be afraid to walk standing up on a steep slope, now it’s second nature to me. I trust my feet because at some point I took a chance and learned that I could.
The last thing I want to mention might be the most obvious one. Nature has a lot to teach us about creativity. Nature shows us that a caterpillar can become a butterfly and a trees change colors.
Breathing fresh air and seeing beauty is inspiring. Such inspiration helps us cultivate our own creativity. I could talk about this for hours so feel free to reach out!
stay tuned for more content for adventurous kids
I’ve been cranking out content for adventurous parents in honor of our adventure kids book launch. Be sure to sign-up for our newsletter or check back in at the blog and Pre-order today on Kickstarter! (Update: our ABCs picture book is here, check it out!)
Thanks for stopping by to hear some thoughts on raising adventurous kids! Don’t miss some of our other resources for adventurous families.
- How to Adventure with Kids: A Parent Survival Guide
- Our 8 Favorite Children’s Adventure Picture Books
- Adventure Kid’s Book Launch – ABCs of Adventure
- How to photograph your kids – online course: another result of our Covid quarantine!
- Blue Lake Colorado Hiking Adventure and Photography: one of our favorite first hiking experiences with our daughter
- Family Skiing Colorado: The ups and downs of adventuring with kids.
- Backyard Ski Hill: Skiing with kids is easier when we get enough snow to ski out our backdoor!
- Lessons learned camping with a baby
We are Marc and Brenda Bergreen. We’re a photography team specializing in adventure lifestyle and adventurous wedding photography. Above all our philosophy, love. adventurously. is the guidepost for everything we do.
Finally, be sure to follow us and/or like us to stay tuned.
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