Stuck in the House

  "The sun did not shine.  It was too wet to play.  So we sat in the house all that cold, cold, wet day...Too wet to go out and too cold to play ball.  So we sat in the house.  We did nothing at all." excerpted from The Cat In The Hat by Dr. Suess.

   Well this is obviously a little outdated since kids enjoy sitting in the house these days and they don't need a Cat in the Hat to find things to do. They have Thing 1, the Playstation, and Thing 2, the Xbox, and they have the internet and the DVD player. Raining or not, some kids prefer to be stuck in the house. Some adults are also known to cancel social outtings in preference of trending toward hermit.
   In our house,
    we have enacted the balance rule. You need to balance the time you spend alone with time you spend socializing with others, the time you spend sitting in front of a screen, whether it's a computer monitor, game console, or television screen, with the time you spend outdoors communing with nature on a hiking trail, a horse's back, on a soccer field, or in the garden, and the time you spend with family with the time you spend with friends, in fellowship, or in your communities.
    Staying in to play a few video games or hang out in your home isn't all bad. Our family connects across continents and shares community with others through online gaming and social networks as well as spends a few family game nights in front of the Wii console. However, the benefits of those activities would diminish greatly if that was all that we did.
    There are a few good reasons to get out of the house a little every day, even if it's raining.
     1. God made us social creatures and we need to develop a network of social connections for good times and bad times. This takes time-- face to face-- interacting with others. We need hugs.
     2. Sometimes it's not about you. Other people need you to get out of the house to support them even if it is just to hear their name read in a stadium full of a thousand people and they can't even see you up there in the stands. Knowing you are there on their graduation day, hearing their name read is important whether you felt entertained by the key note speaker or not. You may have been the only person that gentlemen you greeted in the church lobby has talked to all week. 
     3. God created nature to teach us about who He is. "But ask the animals, and they will teach you, or the birds in the sky, and they will tell you; or speak to the earth, and it will teach you, or let the fish in the sea inform you." Job 12:7-10. We were created to commune with God through nature. 
     Don't let yourself or your kids get stuck in the house. It is easy to do with all this home-bound entertainment. We often have a fight when it is time to shut down and get out the door and sometimes it is difficult for me not to make excuses to stay home, but the kids always end up being glad they did get out. I always feel better about the time I spend in the house when I have balanced it with time out of the house.   
     For further study see:
Chapter 25 Relationships in the The 30 Day Home Management Project by Kimberly Brixey