Here's Why You Should Let Your Kids Do Things

Weird, out of the ordinary things

Listen to the audio version - narrated by me - here

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Nicolae Ceausescu, the Communist leader of Romania was executed on Christmas Day 1989 which led to a period of huge unrest in the country. By summer 1990, I was there.

I was 5 years old.

My parents wanted to help Romania in any way they could. So they fundraised and sought donations from our local town. They filled up a Volkswagon Transporter van with toys, medicine, and clothes and set off on a three-day journey from the UK to Sibiu in central Romania, taking their five and two-year-olds along for the ride.

Me and the fam, summer 1990

We visited Romanian orphanages - the ones that made world news for their appalling conditions. My job was to give out toys to the kids, the ones you can see me here faithfully washing and drying back in the UK.

That's my 5 year old arm in the bottom left picture

I remember those orphanages so well. My brother tells me they were his first memories.

My father would continue to work in Romania for the next 10 years, and a further 20 in Siberia, Ukraine, and Albania. He’s in his late seventies now but still goes to Albania to teach English twice a year. He will be there next week in fact.

As for me, I visited Romania three times between the ages of 5 and 11. These experiences played no small part in shaping who I am as an adult. It’s no coincidence that I travel now. That I want to live a smaller, more sustainable life. That I want to help people do the same.

Young, formative experiences change kids. Which is exactly why we should encourage them, in whatever shape they come.

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Do I sound really old and fuddy-duddy if I say childhoods are not what they used to be? Because I fear they are not. The Internet - despite all its glorious advantages - has a stranglehold on our kids’ development. Kid’s YouTube is HUGE - there is one channel that rakes in over $200 million a year. Kids under 8 spend 65% of their time on YouTube. They also spend less time outdoors than any other generation.