Natural Instincts

In some parenting book I read once, (The Happiest Toddler On The Block, maybe?) the author wrote about how kids want, no - need, to be outside in nature. It's part of evolution or some such scientific reason.



Only within the last hundred years or so, have children started to be more indoors than out. A tiny blip on the evolutionary timeline. So, now that they're cooped up for large portions of the day and night, their little bodies and brains are going haywire with the change. Their cells are crying out for dirt, weeds, open spaces, and blue skies.



You know how I know this is true?



Every time I turn my back, Lauren makes a beeline for the potted plants, shoves her fist into the soil, and tries to eat a handful of it.



If this isn't the picture of cells crying out for nature, I don't know what is.