It's summer; the streets should be flooded with children

The stories of Heidi and Mary are instructive in what children need to thrive: sunlight.

Photo by A. L. on Unsplash

It’s July, the peak of summer. The sun is shining high in the sky. Life guards are manning their posts seaside and lakeside and at public pools across the US. Ice cream trucks are making their rounds from dawn to dusk. And fireworks dot the sky on any given night.

But where are the kids? In far too many neighborhoods, there are few, if any, kids in sight. They aren’t inventing new games in their backyards. They aren’t riding their bikes to visit friends, local parks, or the corner convenience store that sells their favorite treats. They aren’t running through sprinklers or playing a casual game of baseball or basketball in the nearby dead-end street.

Perhaps the kids are enjoying the great outdoors at summer camp. Or, more likely, in too many cases, they are indoors in front of a screen.

I am a proponent of summer reading programs, so I would be a hypocrite to dismiss indoor activities during the summer months. But the summer days are long, with plenty of time for reading and spending hours outdoors. Plus, it does rain from time to time, and a blanket, a shaded tree, and a book go great together.

Funnily enough, some works of classic literature spill much ink expounding on the virtues of a childhood lived outdoors. Heidi and the Secret Garden are two such works. Reading them might compel a child to put the book down and pick some flowers or start a garden, and the stories may encourage parents to ensure their child lives their life outdoors whenever possible. 

Johanna Spyri, the author of Heidi, details the transformation of Heidi from mountain girl to city girl and back to mountain girl to illustrate what children require to thrive: fresh air, fresh dairy, and the freedom to roam.

Heidi is healthiest when she is living on the Alp with her grandfather. When she goes to live in Frankfort, confined to the indoors with an ill girl who requires a wheelchair, she becomes weak, desperately misses trees and fresh mountain air, and is so depressed that she is unable to smile or eat and has restless sleep. 

Heidi’s life before Frankfort was filled with long days accompanying a young boy and his goats up the mountain to pasture, eating fresh bread and cheese and drinking goat’s milk straight from the source. When she was finally determined to never be well so long as she was in Frankfort, Heidi was sent back to the mountains where she regained her rosy cheeks and healthy physique, reemerging as the ray of sunshine in the lives of everyone she encountered, as she was before her city life.

Mary, the main character in the Secret Garden, had a similar experience when she moved from India to England. Mary was considered to be a disagreeable girl who was too thin, always ill, and largely ignored by her parents. She was raised by servants who attended to her every need and was never left alone to roam freely. When her parents died, she was sent to live in England with an uncle on a large estate. 

At the estate, called Misselthwaite Manor, Mary was expected to dress herself and entertain herself—two things she’d never been expected to do while living in India. She was given freedom to roam (most) of the estate and was encouraged to spend more time outside to make herself well and strong, which she quickly became. Her attitude, after spending much time outdoors gardening and skipping rope, improved as well. 

When she arrived at the manor she had a sour disposition that was noticed by anyone who encountered her. As time passed, and as her body became that of a healthy young girl, her mood and outlook on life simultaneously improved. She woke up excited for the day ahead of her and had difficulty pulling herself away from her outdoor activities to return home for meals and bedtime. 

Instead of a storm cloud following Mary around, sunlight entered her world, just like Heidi’s.

In both the stories of Heidi and the Secret Garden, a wheelchair-bound child becomes well, with encouragement from Heidi and Mary, respectively, once they have left the confines of the indoors and have been introduced to outdoor adventures worth getting out of bed for. They abandon their mindset of hopelessness and embrace the opposite mindset, one of a bright future filled with friendships and new experiences.

The message embedded in both stories is clear: to stay indoors is to be unwell; to live outdoors in the sunlight is to be well. Actually, it’s more than that: to live in the sunlight is to thrive.

The children who are kept indoors this summer are not thriving.

Certainly, there are circumstances that lead adults to restrict outdoor access to the children in their lives. Perhaps their neighborhood is crime-ridden and genuinely unsafe. Perhaps they are (unfortunately, rightly) worried that a neighbor may call the cops if their child is playing outdoors without them or another adult. Perhaps there is no one to play with, so children would rather have interactions with others online.

These are valid concerns, but they need to be overcome. Depression and anxiety are up among the youth and sunlight, along with real-life companions who are also seeking the light, is part of the cure. If parents need to be told or reminded of this, or if children need to be nudged to leave the couch, they should read Heidi’s and Mary’s adventures. Their stories depict how wonderful a childhood outdoors can be.

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Are you a parent interested in having your child read classic stories like Heidi and the Secret Garden? Sign them up for the Young Wanderers program! Enrollment closes July 17th and will not reopen until January.