The Olympics Aren’t Watching So Go Play

Your child’s favorite memory probably won’t be the final score, it’ll be the moment you jumped in and played. We dig into how families can build stronger relationships with kids through a healthy recreation life, using brain-based parenting principles that make play more than “free time.” We define recreation as true rejuvenation and talk about why it works best when it reduces stress, builds connection, and gives kids a safe place to practice big emotions.

We walk through what recreation can look like at different ages, from simple elementary games that build motor skills and rule-following, to middle school activities where the pressure around winning and losing ramps up, to high school recreation that supports identity, resilience, and self-discipline. Along the way, we highlight the internal benefits that matter most: sportsmanship, teamwork, empathy, and problem solving. We also get practical about options, including outdoor adventure activities, swimming, arts and crafts, board games, and strategy games that help kids “think ahead” and learn from setbacks.

We also tackle what makes recreation succeed: structure, clear expectations, safety, and adults who guide instead of dominate. Finally, we talk screen time and why boundaries only work when we model them, too, including simple scheduling ideas that replace endless scrolling with real connection. If you found this helpful, subscribe, share the show with a friend, and leave a review so more families can find these tools.

Contact:
podcasts@calfarley.org 

To Donate: 
https://secure.calfarley.org/site/Donation2?3358.donation=form1&df_id=3358&mfc_pref=T

To Apply:
https://apply.workable.com/cal-farleys-boys-ranch/j/25E1226091/

For More Information about Cal Farley's Boys Ranch:
https://www.calfarley.org/

Music:
"Shine" -Newsboys
CCS License No. 9402

Transcript

Welcome And The Big Goal

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to Brain-Based Parenting, the Boys Ranch podcast for families. We all know how hard being a parent is, and sometimes it feels like there are no good answers to the difficult questions families have when their kids are struggling. Our goal each week will be to try and answer some of those tough questions, utilizing the knowledge, experience, and professional training Cal Farley's Boys Ranch has to offer. Now here is your host, Cal Farley Staff Development Coordinator Joshua Sprock.

SPEAKER_04 0:30

Hello and welcome. Today we're going to talk about how families can build stronger relationships with their kids through a healthy recreation life. To do that, today I'm joined by Shelley Minor, Director of Youth Activities.

SPEAKER_01 0:40

Jenny Jackson, Youth Activity Coordinator. Dale Dabbling, Youth Activity Coordinator, specializing the adventure portion.

SPEAKER_03 0:47

Amy Fry, Youth Activity Coordinator, Pool Manager.

SPEAKER_04 0:50

Thank you all for joining us. Let's kick off with our question of the day. So on a

Competitiveness And Defining Recreation

SPEAKER_04 0:54

scale of one to ten, what would you say is your level of competitiveness?

SPEAKER_01 0:58

Solid five.

SPEAKER_04 0:59

So you're just kind of right there in the middle.

SPEAKER_05 1:04

Kind of depends, but typically about a seven.

SPEAKER_02 1:07

I would say I am now probably around a five, but when I first started here at Boys Ranch, I was probably in a nine or a ten. But I could I've learned how to lose now.

SPEAKER_03 1:16

So I would say I'm a five. I like to win, but I don't care if I lose.

SPEAKER_04 1:20

I've not learned. I am a twenty.

unknown 1:24

Yes.

SPEAKER_04 1:25

I don't really actually like or care about winning, but I hate losing. All right. So I always like to start by to make sure that everyone knows what we're talking about. So how would you all define recreation?

SPEAKER_01 1:36

Recreation, I feel, is a rejuvenation of mind and body and spirit through doing something of what you love or like greatly like, such as horseback riding or kayaking or something, but something that is not work-related, but kind of gives you that recharge that we all need from the daily grind.

SPEAKER_05 1:56

I would say it's fun activities that help take your mind off the stressors in life.

SPEAKER_02 2:01

And I was thinking it was something that's stimulating your body and your mind. So whether it's physical activity to get your muscles and body moving, or it can also be sitting and watching a movie or doing arts and crafts to also get the creative juices going in your brain.

SPEAKER_04 2:14

So

Benefits Of Play By Age

SPEAKER_04 2:15

what would you say are some of the positive external and internal benefits that recreation activities provide? And let's start with the younger kids, like pre-adolescents.

SPEAKER_01 2:23

So we were talking about this actually just the other day. We kind of feel that if you broke it down simply, it'd be activities that are easy, medium, and hard in that order from young to middle to high school. So for the young kids, we're really just doing the fun stuff. Simple games that work on body movement, learning to follow rules, learning to follow leaders, leadership, learning to lose. But that doesn't come too much till I think we feel like more later. But you know, just kind of really simple, easy, fun things. Whereas high schoolers, you know, they're they're too cool for that, right? So they're not really into playing tag. Although we still do that with the high schoolers and the every age group, because a lot of these things I feel go, they're they're they they transcend all age levels, all age groups, all people, because sometimes when I play tag with my kids, I'm having a good time with it.

SPEAKER_05 3:13

So some of the positive internal is uh learning how to lose, learning how to win, learning how to be a good sport no matter where you fall in that. And I don't know if it would necessarily be external, but especially for the younger kids, some of the physical activities like throwing balls, games that include throwing balls or running, they're working their big motor skills going through where you sometimes work smaller motor skills.

SPEAKER_04 3:42

So, what about middle school? What would you say are the external and internal benefits for middle school kids?

SPEAKER_01 3:47

Well, like I was saying earlier, I feel like the external benefits is just being outside or even inside, but moving your body, getting the blood flowing, learning body movements, learning how your body reacts to things. With the middle schoolers, too. I feel that you start adding more complex games, more complex activities, well, you have to start using the brain a little bit more than just tag. So the internal benefits of learning, again, this is where you start to really start to learn to lose, I think, because there's more persona around winning and losing because you have football, you have track, you have things that you really didn't do in in grade school that now when you lose, you know, people know it. It's not just we play re-tag at recess and you're done and you go back to class and nobody cares. Now people are starting to care.

SPEAKER_04 4:30

Yeah, I think about when my girls were in kids ink type sports, they didn't keep score. In middle school, the scoreboard's always on. Yeah, and people are watching it. Yeah, there's a big difference there. I think you're right. They they start to pay attention to that a lot more. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_01 4:42

You know, and our society is fueled by sports, you know, football, soccer.

SPEAKER_04 4:46

Yeah, when when they're little, they just play for fun, right? Just for the enjoyment of the game. And then I don't know if it's the pressure of adults or if it's just part of that developmental age where they start to care more about the winning and losing. But I think it's as part of it is you gotta figure out how to do it the right way.

SPEAKER_01 4:59

Aaron Powell And I think with the internal too, you start to learn a little bit more about teamwork and team building. Because again, at grade school level, you're not really you're just worried about catching the ball. Yeah. You're not worried about, you know, working together to get whoever has the ball.

SPEAKER_05 5:12

If you move it not necessarily as physical recreation activities, but go more like board games from middle schoolers. Sometimes it's learning strategy. It's learning, okay, if I make these moves, then this is gonna happen. Okay, I need to try a different thing, whether it's chess or the game of risk. I mean, there are so many different card games and board games that could be played, but they learn problem-solving skills. Like, okay, I was playing chess and I move these pieces this way and that doesn't work. Okay, well, I'm gonna try something different. I know even sometimes some of the games on the phone or video games, you're trying to beat a level, and you have even as an adult, I have to play it like five or six times and then finally figure out the strategy that works. But problem solving skills is something that you need throughout life. And playing some of these more complicated games is a good way of learning that.

SPEAKER_04 6:15

I totally agree. What do you think the role of the adult is coming alongside them when they're learning these skills in middle school?

SPEAKER_05 6:21

To use our frontal cortex and to help not show them where they're wrong and what the strategies are, though sometimes that might be. Ask them, hey, do you want me to give you some tips on this? Do you want me to show you some of the strategies and then continue to play them? Sometimes it's just giving them little tips. You don't want to just give them, okay, well, this is the whole thing of how you win this game or a really good strategy because you want them to learn it, start to get to know some of it on their own, but help them along, not just give it to them, and not just continue to beat them where they don't want to play anymore.

SPEAKER_01 6:59

Yeah, that's how I feel about too. Like we I see myself as a guide. Like I'm not in charge running the show I am actually. But you know, we're guiding them when I have kids out and kayaks, keeping them safe, you know, being priority. But I'm not just saying do it this way. I'll pull up beside them and show them how I move my body, how I push through the the the paddle stroke and how to get that boat to do what you want it to do. So it's more of a guide than really of just the PE teachers like do this, and then you don't know where the PE teacher's at, you know.

SPEAKER_02 7:29

I think also when you're playing alongside the kids, you're developing that relationship with them. So it's not just you standing on the sideline giving them instructions on how to play or what they're doing wrong. You're playing alongside of them. And the kids, I think, enjoy that better than us shouting at them across the room.

SPEAKER_01 7:45

Yeah, and they they respond better to you over time too. So when they when they lose the game, they're going to listen to you better than if you're not present all the time.

SPEAKER_04 7:54

So, what about high school kids? What do you think that the benefits are for 15 to 18 year olds?

SPEAKER_01 8:00

This is where I think we come into the more advanced things where and so the the benefits of learning to be better than you were yesterday, learning to push through that pain. So being better than you were yesterday and learning how to take the when you're not better than yesterday, because not of us, not all of us are going to be perfect every day. And like, you know, learning to take the falls, learning that when you fall down seven times, you get up eight. And so I feel like that's really important and becomes part of the learning process.

SPEAKER_02 8:30

I think they're also learning how to how the workout goes and they have to maintain their strength and flexibility, you know, later on. And so they have to learn how to maintain their strength and workout routines. And I believe also they're continuing through all these ages to learn about sportsmanship. And maybe when they're older, they learn a little more about compassion and empathy. Because they've lost before, they understand what the other team may feel if they lose.

SPEAKER_01 8:53

You know, we're talking too about, you know, sports, football, baseball, whatever. And I watched my son, who is nothing like me, and he's on the computer a lot and loves to do his his video games with his friends. And he does, I don't think he knows it. His mom and I will listen to what he's saying. And like you said, about how learning to work together. I mean, it's still even in that microclimate of the digital world, it's still happening. I prefer that he'd be outside poking rattlesnakes, but I can't make him anything if he doesn't want to be. But you still get that stuff that that benefit, that external benefit, even on that microclimate of the digital world.

SPEAKER_03 9:28

I also think in this high school age group, the adults they become more important. They're the view of who they are to the coach and their outlook is important to them. How what the coaches think about them and they want to impress them and the adults in their lives, and it's a little more important to them.

SPEAKER_04 9:44

Yeah, I think that's absolutely true. Like we went camping this summer. We go camping every summer. And when my girls were in elementary and middle school, it was a lot of us directing them to do stuff and uh just making them do setup to stuff. Now that they're in high school, they actually go alongside us and they do a lot on their own, but they're also like, did I do it right? Did I do it? I mean, so it's it's kind of cool they do care. And it's actually a lot more fun, I think, in some ways that they can actually participate a lot more fully and you don't have to be spend all your time telling them step by step how to do everything once they get into this age.

SPEAKER_05 10:15

I think high school is a good time for them to somewhat find their niche. Okay, maybe you are mostly an athlete, but you also like some arts and crafts. And having the different types of recreation can offer different types of external and internal benefits. It allows more both brain muscles and physical muscles to be worked out. If you're learning like it in arts and crafts or board games, they get to go a lot more complex. It's not just gluing paper to paper, but there are a lot more of mosaics and different things where they work on those fine motor skills and continue to work on the big things for sports, but really hone what activities they enjoy. Do they prefer kayaking and boating and stuff like that on the water? Or do they prefer swimming? It gives them a wider range so they can narrow it down.

SPEAKER_04 11:16

I think it's interesting. So few kids will actually go on to do, you know, any type of professional athletic. But this is the time, like you said, when they're just trying to figure out who they are and what type of recreation activities they're gonna do going forward. And it's kind of fun to watch them kind of explore and gain new insight into these things. And maybe they like to play pickleball, maybe like hiking, maybe they like arts and crafts or board games. But it's kind of cool to see that discovery and them figure out what they actually like as opposed to maybe what their parents like.

SPEAKER_01 11:41

Yeah, I had this young lady a few years ago who took the home out canoeing and kayaking, and she did not want a part of it. You know, fast forward six years now, she is a kayak guide. Oh, wow. She actually even posted on Facebook the other day about how much that she learned from us when we were teaching her. And I had no idea. I thought she just hated it the entire time, but she was very appreciative of that. And she would not have ever done it had we not taken her out and like learned something you didn't know that you wanted to do and school guide in California. Yeah.

Picking Activities Kids Actually Enjoy

SPEAKER_04 12:13

What type of activities would you recommend for each level? Let's start with elementary.

SPEAKER_01 12:17

So I think these are just the these are the fun games. And like I said earlier, too, you would take this and do this with all age groups and levels, but with elementary, you're gonna focus on tag, duck duck goose, really simple, just fun games where you're getting your body moving or down to arts and crafts. Like it's gonna be simple arts and crafts. It's not we're not we're not cross-stitching here, we're not taking out a sewing machine. You know, on the heels of that, too. I was actually talking to my wife about this. The US ski team. Those kids start skiing when they're two years old. Yeah, so you can't we talk about how, yeah, let's let's do easy, easy games for them. But there are some people that are just born to get on skis or get on a soccer ball or you ever have hopes of being the only US ski team. Start when you're three.

SPEAKER_05 12:56

I was thinking like baseball or kickball. Sometimes when they're elementary is a pretty big age group. Yeah, that's true. It's potentially pre-K or kindergarten through either fourth, fifth, or sixth grade. And sometimes with the younger ones, you're trying to teach them the goal is maybe baseball. So you start with something like kickball and you start with really basic rules. Kick the ball, or even maybe they throw the ball and then teach them how to run the bases. And then for the outfield, it's get the ball back to maybe the quote unquote pitcher. And then as they work their way up, then you add a couple more rules, or you shift it a little bit more to baseball, but you don't necessarily do the completely simple game, but you take a game, maybe even like football, and you're simply teaching them how to throw the ball to begin with.

SPEAKER_02 13:51

I think, like you mentioned earlier about kids inc. I think that's when these age groups are starting to play those types of sports. So they are learning a little bit of a sport-related activity, but again, maybe they're not keeping score.

SPEAKER_04 14:01

What about like swimming? I was thinking about that, like swimming lessons. How do you introduce that initially?

SPEAKER_03 14:06

Don't do the old bash and throw them into the pool that causes trauma we've learned. We don't want to do that. Just doing basics, and it's a lot of the mom or dad getting in the water with the kids at a young age at elementary school and teaching them just how to move their legs and their arms and trying to get them not afraid of the water is important. So it's a lot you have to have somebody that they trust. It's important in the water at first, and then the older they get, even the older elementary school, they it's good to find a swim instructor who you can use every year and bring them back and they can learn a little bit more and build that trust, and then eventually they'll do what the instructor says, and and they have a lot of fun with it. And you know, make swimming fun.

SPEAKER_04 14:46

So, what about middle school? What type of activities would you recommend for this level?

SPEAKER_05 14:50

Start getting more into the sports, middle school, at least the active recreation. You are kind of teaching them more of the rules and not the high school intensity of soccer and baseball and football and volleyball, but you're more teaching them a little bit more of the skills and the rules. When it comes to card games and board games, boating and other things, you can amp up the game more. You can not necessarily memory games. We think of those more for elementary, but start adding more of the games like chess and risk and some of those strategy games where they have to think more. You can also have some fun games like Munchkin where they're still using their imagination and playing around, but they have to use their thinking skills more than just Candyland where you move up to the next color.

SPEAKER_04 15:50

I think that's actually really interesting because in elementary school, that's what we teach kids is how to play like Candyland or they play war. And if you think about all those games, the winner is predetermined before the game even starts. It's really just, you know, learning the rules of the game. Whereas we move into middle school, you start playing those games like risk and chess. You actually have to think and it it amps it up a little bit. So yeah, you add that extra level. I think that's really interesting to think about.

SPEAKER_01 16:13

Well, I think too with like from my field too, like when you have my children, like for example, my children, when I got them in the kayaks, we just had really small sit-on-tops. And we went out there, we had fun, we played. I really wasn't focused on their strokes or how to move the boat, and now that they're older, I'm getting them more into like, you know, we have different boats that are a little more advanced and and pushing them to learn more things where you didn't do that so much with the elementary level.

SPEAKER_04 16:40

What about activities you would recommend for the high school kids then?

SPEAKER_05 16:43

With high schoolers, you can have more structure. Whether it's arts and crafts, whether it's a whole thing of recreation we haven't been talking about, are like tabletop games of ping pong and air hockey and billiards learning a lot more of the structure of the play and the real things of winning and losing. If they're playing flag football or my favorite ultimate frisbee, you get to, yes, in some cases, be more lax, but you can also really teach them the rules.

SPEAKER_02 17:18

You can also, for the older, for the high school kids, you can uh start teaching refereeing and umpire umpiring sports so they can see it from a different perspective as well. And sometimes we pull the high school kids to help coach actually the the younger kids. So again, they just learn it from a different person's perspective.

SPEAKER_04 17:35

It's really fun to see their passion and enthusiasm when you put them in those roles of coach or ref. And it does kind of I think you're right, it does open their eyes to that different aspect of it because you see things in a way new light when you're actually in charge of something as opposed to they can learn new things too.

SPEAKER_01 17:49

Yeah, they you can let them on their own a little bit more.

Structure Safety And Fair Play

SPEAKER_04 17:52

So what would you say are some of the essential aspects that need to be in place to ensure a successful recreation activity?

SPEAKER_01 17:58

Trevor Burrus, Jr.: Structure and safety. You really need structure because if you don't, then it's just mass chaos.

SPEAKER_02 18:03

And Kayle and I were talking about it the other day, and we were we were talking about how we we have to front load the kids. So we start by if we're sending out an email to the homes, inviting them to come play something, we maybe send out some of the the rules and what we expect the house parents to even front load the kids with. And then when they get there, we set everybody down, we go over the rules of their expectations, sportsmanship, and possibly sometimes we even change the rules throughout the game, and we sometimes front load them all at the very beginning that that may be coming so that there it's not an unexpected change that's coming in the middle of the game.

SPEAKER_01 18:33

And from a recreation point of view, too. I think that when we do that, we do front load them. We try and convey to them that colleges aren't watching. This is not the the Olympics. Like we're not, there's no prize money at the end, there's no gold medal. So let's have some fun with it. Because if you're not having fun with it, then you're just competing. And again, the colleges aren't watching you, right? So it doesn't matter. Like play, have fun.

SPEAKER_03 18:54

And it's important for them to feel safe. So a lot of times you'll hear Kale Jenny say, it's challenged by choice if you're not comfortable doing it, if you get only to the top of the tower at the zip line, and then you have to come down, that's okay. So making them feel like they're safe and it's okay and not judge. And that was an accomplishment, getting up to the top.

SPEAKER_05 19:12

What needs to be in place before you start playing, especially the physical activities, is do we want to play completely by the rules and do this basketball game with all of the little things? Or do we want to play, yeah, we're a little bit more relaxed and we're just we're playing and gonna go and oh, there's a foul. Well, we're just you're stop and then keep going, or are we gonna shoot the free throws and do all of the different things? There are a lot of games, nine square in the air and gaga ball, where somebody messes up and it's like, okay, you're out, but wait about three to five minutes and you're back in. And then also other games, the tabletop games and card games and board games. I think part of it also is making sure that people are on the same level. I know I keep talking about chess, but there are middle school kids that could totally whoop me at chess, and I would not have as much fun. Now at checkers, I might be able to be on their level. But is it, hey, this is a time for you to teach me, or hey, this is a serious competition, sometimes needs to be set in place. With that, are sometimes we work with high school students that come and we're teaching them how to ref, but they'll play the games like nine square with middle school or even elementary kids. And we have to remind them that hey, us as adult and you as a high schooler, we can't just spike the ball on the younger kids. We need to bring it down just a little bit for it to be a successful game. Because if the overpowering people are overpowering the entire game, sometimes it makes the younger or not as competent students not want to participate. And it's not as fun if you keep getting out every time you step in. So there's just a lot of other little things to think about before a successful rec activity.

SPEAKER_01 21:14

Yeah, and they when you have participants who are going for blood like that, it does take all the fun out of it, and people don't want to play. And the purpose of the rec activity is to have fun and to learn and grow and not get hit in the head with a nine-square ball because you got spiked and bam.

SPEAKER_02 21:29

I think another thing to help make it a successful activity is to play with the kids. If you can get out there and play with the kids side by side, you learn so much more about them, you see any of the troubles that might be brewing before they even start because you're here next to them. That's one of the things when I hire my summer staff to help with our summer programs is I tell them you I don't expect you to sit on the sidelines and just referee or coach. I want you to be out there with the kids and playing with them.

SPEAKER_04 21:55

Yeah, I think that's one of the essential parts of a rec activity is building the relationships and shared. Experience together and just having fun together. And you can't do that on the sidelines.

SPEAKER_02 22:04

And at the end of the activity, a lot of times we we really look at the kids and we kind of take their pulse and see where they're at. If they're really still wound up, then we may do some activities that kind of wind them down a little bit. We'll have them take their pulse. We'll have them deep breathe. Sometimes we'll have them go and pick up the equipment, walk around, get all the equipment and bring it back to us. And sometimes by the end of that, they're their breathing's better and they're calm. Because you don't want to leave them with their all still

Setting Screen Time Boundaries

SPEAKER_02 22:28

amped up. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 22:28

So I sometimes hear parents say that it's just too hard to get their kids off of technology. So what would you say some strategies are the recommend that families do to in order to combat this problem?

SPEAKER_01 22:39

You know, I am battling that one on a daily basis with my own kids. Actually, on a daily basis, right? So we had in in my house, we my wife and I talked about this because our kids were on electronics all the time. We had to, you have to make the time. You have to make the boundaries and the rules. And so we decided that Monday through Thursday, there's zero electronics. I'm like, come on, really? Anime? I don't think so. So, like, really, we have to you have to set the boundaries and the times. So on the weekends, like Friday night, they have unlimited time, but they go to bed at 10. So as soon as they walk in the door, it's like a gunshot. Bam, those electronics are on. Um at 10 o'clock, they go off, they go to bed. Friday, as in the mornings, we don't let them on until eight. So they get like two or three hours in the morning. We have lunch, and then like two hours, even on the weekends when they have electronics, we have after dinner, there's an hour and a half where there's no electronics, but we play board games, Unstable Unicorns, Munchkin, which is one of our favorites. You have to just really set those boundaries, and it is it's tough. I mean, everywhere you turn, there's a line, there's a screen everywhere these days.

SPEAKER_02 23:55

It's now when I was you have to plan it into your schedule, yeah. You have to plan the time.

SPEAKER_05 23:59

Also that the adults' screens are put away too.

SPEAKER_01 24:02

Yes, yeah, because we play with them because and even then, like I'm telling you on the weekends, my my two children, they're counting look at the clock, like they're counting the time down, they can get back on Fortnite or whatever it is that you know Super Smash Bros. It just it's so addicting and it's hard. It is a tough battle, and I don't envy parents, although I guess I am one, but it's it's it's tough, and I yeah, and you really have to set the boundaries and the times. That's my biggest recommendation.

SPEAKER_05 24:29

I think that's my point is the adults have to do it too. It's sometimes we're like, oh, get off the video games and go play outside, but then an adult might then still be there on their phone. There are photos and things that I've seen online where two moms and their kids are maybe on the subway, and one mom holding her phone looks over at a mom and daughter who are both reading books, and she's wondering why the other kid is reading a book where she and her kid each have a phone and are scrolling the social media. Sometimes we need to look at ourselves before we look at the kids who are looking up to us and see how much we are on technology, and then look at the kids and work on ourselves and set those times and make sure our phones are down when the kids are with us.

SPEAKER_04 25:21

Yeah, I just I got convicted recently. I was out with my youngest daughter and we were playing tennis. I she wanted to play tennis or something. Anyway, I got something dinged on my phone and I started looking at it, and she's like, Hey dad, hang up and hang out. Come on, you know better. And I'm like, Oh doing that. So yeah, but it it's hard. I think you guys are right. But we as the adults have to be the role models and lead the way with that.

SPEAKER_01 25:43

Yeah, it's important because the mom had biggest pet peace is doing what I say, not as I do. And so we'll we'll be playing munchkin in the middle of a battle, and my boss will text a call, and you know, my my son is like, uh-uh-uh, yeah, uh, that's right. Hang up, let's hang out. Yeah, he's it's it's a tough battle.

SPEAKER_02 26:00

It's we used to during screen free week, we would turn off all the we would unplug all the TVs, the the video games at the Dipple Activity Center, and everyone that came in could no could not play any of those during that whole week. And boy, you could hear the complaints, it was tough. But we would also offer a lot of different other choices, and so the kids got to choose some other things and learn how to play other games.

SPEAKER_04 26:20

I think that's the biggest thing. You gotta offer something better. Chaplin Wilhelm mentioned that on one of the previous podcasts. The kids want relationships with us, and they're substituting technology for their relationships with us, so we have to there to provide that for them. Well,

Closing And Ways To Connect

SPEAKER_04 26:34

thank you for actively seeking us out and listening to this show, and we hope it encourages you to get out there and have some fun with your kids. If you'd like to contact us to ask a question, our email address is podcast at calfarley.org. I'll leave a link in the description. Also, if you haven't already, please follow and subscribe the show and leave us a five-star review and tell your best friend that they should also listen. As always, remember, you might have to loan out your frontal lobes today. Just make sure you remember to get them back.

SPEAKER_00 26:58

Thank you for listening to Brain Based Parenting. We hope you enjoyed this show. If you would like more information about CalFarley's Boys Ranch, are interested in employment, would like information about placing your child, or would like to help us help children by donating to our mission, please visit calfarly.org. You can find us on all social media platforms by searching for Cal Farley's. Thank you for spending your time with us and have a blessed day.