2 RSVPs, 2 no-shows. No one showed up to this meetup. Instead, my daughter and I just spend an hour wandering around, walking in the grass, and investigating some just-her-sized rocks. Having no one show up for this first time got me thinking about some of the different aspects of organizing these meetups; from the little details to the more philosophical.
First, I started to reconsider the day and time of our meetups. At first, I thought Thursday afternoons were great so that families with older kids could attend and Thursdays wouldn’t compete with the many activities vying for families time on the weekends. However, it has started getting dark by 6:30 and cold even earlier, so I think this has started to scare off some of the families with younger kids. Based on our first meetup when both moms were 30 minutes late, I also suspect that families are running around between the time school get out until dinner, trying to get things like homework done.
It also enticed me to think about some of the bigger issues behind why this happened. Why, out of almost 1000 families in our meetup group (and in fact over 1 million people in our city), was I sitting alone with my daughter at the park on a beautiful afternoon. What are the underlying causes of lack of time spent in nature? This resource is a part of our community, but it goes underutilized.
First, I started to reconsider the day and time of our meetups. At first, I thought Thursday afternoons were great so that families with older kids could attend and Thursdays wouldn’t compete with the many activities vying for families time on the weekends. However, it has started getting dark by 6:30 and cold even earlier, so I think this has started to scare off some of the families with younger kids. Based on our first meetup when both moms were 30 minutes late, I also suspect that families are running around between the time school get out until dinner, trying to get things like homework done.
It also enticed me to think about some of the bigger issues behind why this happened. Why, out of almost 1000 families in our meetup group (and in fact over 1 million people in our city), was I sitting alone with my daughter at the park on a beautiful afternoon. What are the underlying causes of lack of time spent in nature? This resource is a part of our community, but it goes underutilized.
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