Tree Huggers

Recently while having a picnic in a park with friends, I heard a woman start yelling at our children. Then she asked me, “Are those your kids, the ones trying to destroy the tree?” To which I calmly responded, “They aren’t destroying it. They are climbing it.”

Deep breath.

Deep breath.

Anyway, hasn’t she read The Giving Tree? Trees love to give and give and give to children.

I am a tree hugger. I love trees. My children are being taught not to deliberately hurt any living thing, be it a tree or a roly-poly. This scenario upset me because a woman took it upon herself to reprimand kids whose mothers were ten feet away from them.

It also got me thinking- no wonder children today have what Richard Louv in his incredible book Last Child in the Woods calls “Nature Deficit Disorder.”

Kids who see a perfectly good tree to climb, collect nuts off of, and who want to just explore its wonder and beauty, should have the freedom to do it.

One thought on “Tree Huggers”

  1. Yes they should be allowed, that’s why the lord made them as long as you don’t destroy it like anything else in this world not just trees

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