This is a sponsored post for Horizon #EarlyMemories through Tap Influence
When you think back to your childhood, what playtime memories come to your mind? I have so many, but some of the most fun memories were living in a particular neighborhood at about the age of 11-13. The neighborhood we lived in was full of kids my age down to my youngest brother. It was in these days that cartoons were only on during slotted times of the day and only a few families had an Atari while Nintendo and Sega were just hitting the market. Weekends would consists of racing through breakfast to start knocking on doors to see who could play for the day only to have our parents make us wait for a respectful time to head to other houses. My Mom had us wait until 10am to start ringing doorbells. One summer, a family of kids I played with were so lucky to have a Dad who built a large playhouse in their backyard. We spent weeks watching it get built and discussing our plans for using the playhouse. We quickly decided it would be our ‘neighborhood Clubhouse’.
Some days the boys were mean and claimed it for the day and would not let us girls in and other days we did the same to them. I can even remember several times where we used the clubhouse for ‘court’. We would have one friend mad at another and would ‘summons’ them to court and we would all gather and solve the issue and force them to get along. I even accidentally broke my friends toe as we decided to rearrange things inside that Clubhouse and I dropped a brick cinder block on her foot when it got too heavy for me.
As a kid, we solved problems on our own, ran all day that our parents saw us at dark again and had the wildest imaginations. No gaming or cartoons all day were available to distract us from organic play! I often tell my boys “Get out side! Climb a tree and break a bone! Go be little boys!” It’s hard to break them away and when they find a play mate for the day, that child wants to also play video games or watch a favorite cartoon. O, the fun I had as a kid and the experiences just are not the same today.
Horizon challenges you to think about your Organic Early Memories and what traditions you still use with your children. For me, I follow my Mom’s rules she had for us. My son is not allowed to knock on doors before 10am and as we played ‘neighborhood court’ in our Clubhouse, we solve issues with family meetings in our home. It was very common on rainy days to make some goodies and watch movies as well. This past fall we started a tradition where most saturday nights we show our 6 year old movies we used to watch. He has come to love the Goonies and Indiana Jones movies. It is fun to allow him to experience the same fun and even problem solving solutions we acquired as kids.
Lunchtime is also the same. I call out to the boys and they run in and enjoy satisfying meals that will keep them going all afternoon. We love Mac & Cheese in our home and I love the Horizon Organic Mac. It is the one I buy most often. It fills them up and they have fun at lunchtime eating their favorite meal!
Win Horizon Mac & Snacks for a Year!
You can win Mac & Snacks for a year! Head over to the Horizon Organics Mac & Snacks contest page and enter to win!
This conversation is sponsored by Horizon. The opinions and text are all mine.
