Last season I was sitting in the duck blind with a client and his son, when his son leaned over to his dad and said "dad where are all the ducks" his dad calmly said " just be patient we have 10 minutes before shooting" and his son replied "The duck hunting game on my Wii doesnt have a shooting time and there are always duck flying"
This little conversation got me thinking how lucky I was that my dad took me hunting as much as he did, My dad traveled alot when I was growing up but every time he went fishing or hunting he always took me, I think that if he would have left me at home I might be one of the adults that still likes to play Nintendo, but instead I became a waterfowl guide in NE WI. What happened to dads or moms taking their kids hunting or fishing? I know that kids these days have alot going on, but so did I when I was a kid, parents need to start taking some time and spend some time with their kids afield. Parents need to stop using nintendo as a babysitter. We as parents need to start think about the future of this wonderful sport, if we dont get our kids involved we are going to lose this sport some day, maybe not in our life time but it will happen.If you dont know what you can do, here are some things that you can do to find out.
1. Call up local clubs DU, Delta Waterfowl, Pheasants Forever, and NWTF for example most of these club either host or hold their own mentor progams, see if you can volunteer or maybe sign your kids up for them. Also join these clubs they are the future of the sport.
2. Make it a point to take a kid hunting or fishing wheather it be your son or daughter or the neighbor kid, there are always kids that would love go hunting or fishing.
3. instead of letting your kids sit in front of the TV, take them outside walk through a field with a dog, walk through the woods looking for sheds, just do something outdoors, Take a kid camping, there is nothing more fun then taking a kid on their first camoing trip.
I will apoolgize for my little rant, but I just our kids to be able to enjoy the same things in the future, that I enjoy now