Exploring Our Children’s Potentials

 
Recently, all five of us went to ‘Mount Gede’ (Gunung Gede, West Java), together with 16 others.

Yes, including our 6yo Brie.

We trekked for hours and hours, and over the 3-days-2-nights trip, we also reached the peak, at 2958m above sea level.

Have we done it before?

No. It was a new experience for all 5 of us.

An physically exhausting and mentally challenging one, yet it was so worthwhile.

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Now, the big question is: WHY?

WHY DID YOU BRING YOUR THREE CHILDREN MOUNTAIN HIKING?

Aren’t you city people? You hardly even walk in Jakarta!

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There are many reasons why we chose to join a group of friends and go mountain hiking with them, with the 3 kids in tow.

And, if I were to share just three reasons, here they are:

>> Get away from daily city routines, and be in the outdoors

Day in, day out, we live in tiny spaces.

We move from one small space with 4 walls, to another.

We live in an apartment. We get into a car. We get off the car and go into classrooms. Or to church.

We spend minimal time outdoors.

So that we share memories together, good and bad experiences, stories that we can talk about years and years to come
We hardly even extend our arms and really fill our lungs with fresh air.

We hardly see and feel the beauty of God’s creation out there.

To Wilson and I, it’s a must to experience the outdoors because we spend most of our days and months in small spaces in the city.

We NEED the open air and interactions with nature.

(How to love and appreciate nature and God’s creation, if we hardly see, feel nor interact with it?)

We need to have THAT balance.

(I guess, it’s different if we live in countries like New Zealand or Australia, where we can enjoy the outdoors much more frequently)

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>> Do something different, as a family

This is our first time going for the mountains. I mean, really hiking / trekking towards the mountain peak.

We’ve never done it before, and it is something that Wilson and I feel we should do, as a family.

Why as a family?

– So our children can see their parents struggle too, through situations that THEY themselves go thorough

– So that they see for themselves HOW their parents choose to face challenges and go through them

– So we can learn more about children, their mindset, their attitudes, see how they respond towards challenges, and guide them along

– So that we share memories together, good and bad experiences, stories that we can talk about years and years to come

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>> Some lessons in life must be personally experienced. They simply cannot be taught verbally.

No proper toilets or bathroomsIf we want our children to push themselves beyond their comfort level, then we believe they really have to be in situations where they actually are BEYOND their usual comfortable situations.

To name a few, here are some ‘different’ situations that we experienced during our 3-days-2-nights hiking trip:

– Trek for hours
– Eat simple, emergency food (Our menu: rice and instant noodles, Tim Tam for snacks, water from the mountain streams)
– Sleep in tents, on hard, rocky ground (we found out how sleeping bags are not THAT thick)
– No proper toilets or bathrooms (Hello bushes!)
– No phone signals or the internet
– Experience physical exhaustion and the need to keep going till the end
– Spend time doing something similar with other people (other than your own family)

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Really. During the trip, Wilson and I got to discover more about ourselves and our children.

Like, we get to see:
– How we respond towards discomfort
– How we treat others when we ourselves are not in comfortable situations
– How we persevere though we feel tired, and how we eventually manage to reach our destination, however slowly
– How we adapt to different routines and still manage, despite the lack of facilities
– How we are amazed by the hundreds and thousands of stars in the night sky
– How we work in a group situation, etc

All of the above can only be discovered when our limits are pushed beyond our normal level.

(Unfortunately, they’re not discovered when we sit comfortably in front of our TV, in our air-conditioned room, eating yummy ice-cream)

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If we’re asked, ‘Would you recommend such a trip to other families?’

I’d say, ‘Yes! Go for it!’.

(In a separate blog post, I’ll share some tips and thoughts on how Wilson and I prepared our children BEFORE the trip and DURING the trip)

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Discover more about ourselves and our childrenOverall, I’d say:
I think our family is so blessed to have had this hiking experience recently.

We learned and discovered so much, about ourselves, others, about God and His amazing creation.

No regrets.

And, looks like there’ll be more =)