OUTDOOR PARENTING 101 - WITH JOHN E. PHILLIPS, JR.
Respect Nature By Not Wasting Anything Meant for Dinner
 EDITOR'S
NOTE: All of us want the best for our children and want
to spend as much time as possible with them. My now-grown
son, John, has written his thoughts about the importance
of outdoor parenting, and I wanted to share them with
you. After hearing John’s recollections about
our time spent outdoors, I realize that sometimes we
don’t recognize the value of an outdoor heritage
or understand what time outdoors means to the young
people involved or how it impacts our children.
One of the first lessons I learned in the outdoors
probably has stuck with me the longest. Cold-weather
hunting when I was young meant  squirrels
and ducks. Both sports involved plenty of walking, which
helped keep me warm. On one particular hunt, I learned
how respect for the outdoors and the game we pursued
took precedence over everything else when afield. At
that time, I hadn't been hunting very long and didn't
feel confident in the ability of my single-shot .410
shotgun. However, I couldn't wait to give it a try.
With temperatures in the low 20s, Dad and I slipped
into a big river bottom with a beaver pond in it, known
for its good duck and squirrel hunting. As we searched
for squirrels, we heard the call of wood ducks.
"Here they come, son," Dad told me. "Stay
low until they come in  close.
We'll have to wait and shoot them once they get over
the shallow water, because we don't have any waders
with us." My father's shotgun soon fired and interrupted
the cold calm morning. The birds turned hard and headed
out toward the center of the pond. A bird dropped, but
to my dismay landed in the deepest part of the frigid
pond. I realized we couldn't reach the duck without
wading, and I started to walk off. Then I heard my father's
voice as he explained, "Son, you don't ever leave
game in the woods or on the water, no matter what the
situation. Respect nature, and take responsibility for
the game you kill." Before I could respond, he
took off his coveralls and stripped down to his underwear.
His feet made a  crunching
sound as the ice on the edge of the pond broke up. He
calmly waded out into the frigid water, dove in and
slowly swam out into the middle of the beaver pond to
retrieve the downed duck. When he returned to the bank,
he quietly put his clothes on, and we continued to hunt.
He didn't say anything about the duck. He seemed content
to teach me a lesson I’d remember for a long time.
That day I learned not only to respect my father, but
also the principles he lived life by. I never took my
privilege to hunt lightly.
TOMORROW: DON’T WASTE
AN OPPORTUNITY WHEN OUTSIDE WITH THE BIRDS AND THE BEES
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