While driving around the city, looking at these glorious, colorful gardens surrounding the houses, it looks so unusual to me not to see kids enjoying and playing, It looks like the old story of the Jinni who comes to take a kid every year has made all kids hide behind their home doors.

Where are the little ones? Why aren’t they playing hide and seek? Football? Tag war? Running? Where did the laughters and giggles go? How are they connecting with their friends and neighbors?

Kids are losing their natural habitat of living their childhood and their innocence, they lose their confidence to socialize, their ability to imagine, their creativity in building wondrous castles with sands, or digging holes in mud, their clothes are not filled with dirt and their hands lost their skills in painting, their brains can’t read wonderful pages of Roald Dahl or Harry Potter. And they lost the natural growth they get from sunlight.

THE SUMMER HOLIDAY IS THE GATE FOR NATURAL HEALTHY GROWTH.

Spending summer holiday with family, neighbors and friends nurtures their emotional growth, keeps them away from the closed atmosphere, helps them understand the world around them, teaches them to socialize, then store all these emotions for months and years to stay as eternal memories of a healthy childhood.

Running, skipping, jumping build their bodies, strengthen their muscles. The sunlight tickles their little bodies to build their bones, playing with sand and stones improves their motor skills.

I don’t emember spending a holiday behind doors, I don’t remember seeing dusk from behind windows during the holiday, I don’t remember a single day of my whole childhood missing the stunning scene of the sunset while playing, I don’t remember spending a day without my neighbors, or changing my clothes in the evening without being filled with dirt or mud.

Did your kids build good memories of this holiday? Did they meet new friends? Did they have the chance for unstructured time? Doing what they want whenever they want? Did they find a snail in the garden or plant a new flower...NO

HOW ARE THE KIDS SPENDING THEIR HOLIDAYS THESE DAYS?

Kids are slumping on the couches, hiding behind their screens, connected with an unrealistic world, fighting with guns, killing others and celebrating their murder, losing their energy, their childhood, their bonding, and their right of playing and interacting with nature.

They are building their addiction to screens, increasing their levels of a hormone called Dopamine, the hormone that is responsible for addiction in the body, the girls are counting the number of likes and follows on their social media posts, they are connecting with strangers you don’t know and you have no idea what are they teaching them, they let strangers intrude their private lives, know where they are, how old they are, what they love and what they hate.

Teenagers are watching series on the internet, they go to their rooms and stay up till morning hours moving from episode to the other, do you know what are they watching? Is it age appropriate? They spend their nights watching these series and sleeping all day.

It’s never too late to wake up dear Parents from this nightmare, take away the screens, and start a new way for spending the holiday.

• Throw your kids out and let them play.

• Collect the good memories.

• Create some fun family time.

• Take them for walks.

• Go to the parks.

• Visit the museums.

• Have a picnic together

• Let them build tents.

• Let them smell flowers and appreciate the nature. 

• Let them visit their grandparents and listen to the stories.

• Ask them to do house chores, bake a cake.

Remember their childhood doesn’t last forever so invite them to the real world they need to know!

You are responsible for building your kids’ future, so let them nurture their heart and soul with A PROPER, ENJOYABLE, HEARTFELT, MEMORY-FILLED SUMMER HOLIDAY!