Parents of school-aged children, please make a springtime resolution to kick your kids outside.
When one of those teasing warm breezes recently blew by, I noted that the days were thankfully getting longer. When I was a kid, this meant more than an hour to play football after school and soon the grass would be dry enough to ease into baseball season.
Suddenly, a light bulb went off in my head. I couldnt remember the last time I saw kids playing ball on someones lawn.
Lunch recesses at my elementary school resembled watch-your-back outdoor time in a penitentiarys yard and physical education in middle school well, there was too much time wasted standing around.
Kids in our neighborhood league couldnt wait to get home and into makeshift uniforms. Slightly miniature representatives of various NFL teams hurried to assemble at the nearest piece of grass that was at least 20 yards long. If it was raining a bit, all the better; if the ground was hard, we pretended we were in Green Bay. We learned to rotate fields, so everyones lawn had a chance of surviving the sloshy winter.
We played mostly on private property and a vacant, dusty lot for baseball because the nearest public patch of grass was over two miles away.
Most kids in the Arlington area are a bit more fortunate; there are municipal and county parks all over the place (see the citys website at www.ci.arlington.wa.us/). From the expansive grounds and skateboarding opportunities at Quake Field to Jensen Park and the picturesque Twin Rivers area, theres something for everyone, including adults and families. For the latter, the Airport Trail and the unique Zimmerman Hill Climb are hidden gems. Admittedly, the Smokey Point area is a bit under-served, but the recently built York Park is a really nice place to play.
Some kids are reluctant to get involved in Little League, soccer associations, etc., and thats understandable organized sports arent for everyone. But if a child isnt athletically inclined, or introverted even the more reason to get em outside. Exercise, getting fresh air and making friends is monumentally important and too often neglected. Most of the kids in our sandlot leagues were bookish, athletic outcasts, including myself, but we wanted to play so badly … and our desire paid off. Within a few years, many of us were wearing high school jerseys.
So, the next time youre at Wal-Mart, detour around the electronics aisles and visit the sporting goods section. Theres bound to be something there that your child will take an interest in, and it wont be obsolete next year. I know from experience that you dont need anywhere near 18 or 22 kids to play a game and it only takes two to play catch or kick a ball around. If youre concerned about your son or daughters safety, theres safety in numbers. If theres a dad around to show someone how to throw a spiral or catch a fly ball, great. If not, kids have a way of figuring out things for themselves; theres a lot of on-the-job training involved in being 10 years old.
Make a resolution to get your children outside on the next warm afternoon. Know where theyre going, who theyll be with and tell em not to come home until dinnertime. If a local version of the Little Rascals hasnt already been formed, theyll put one together. Too many kids arent in a rush to put down their video games and cell phones; they assume theres an infinite number of springtimes before the demands of adulthood curtail opportunities for outdoor play.
But we know better.

A former reporter for The Arlington Times, Steve Stav moved to Arlington in 2004 with his wife who grew up here. He resigned from The Times to continue freelancing for magazines and Web sites. Stav started his writing profession in Seattle in 1998, reviewing music for various Seattle publications, including three years at the Rocket. Stav arrived in the Pacific Northwest from Minneapolis in 1976 at age 8. He lived in California twice before settling in the Pacific Northwest.