How Parents’ Attitudes And Behaviours Shape a Child’s Love for the Outdoors

If you’ve ever taken a three-year-old outdoors, you know they don’t need nudging to run around and explore.

Give them a trail to walk on, a few rocks, and maybe a fallen branch, and children are in their element.

We love having children ages 3 to 5 on our treks for their inexhaustible energy and curiosity. They scramble up slopes with no hesitation, are curious about insects, and sit in the dirt with pure contentment.

And then, there are adults who accompany them.

“I remember one particular trek when the sun was unforgiving. The children kept going undeterred. But as the adults started to grumble about the heat and exhaustion, their children suddenly lost interest too. The trek became less about adventure and more about shared discomfort. The moment parents stopped, their children stopped,” recalls Mrudula Joshi, Programme Advisor at the Indiahikes School of Outdoor Learning (InSOUL).

Children between ages 3 to 5 learn by watching us 

Children between the ages of three and five are natural mirrors. They mimic and absorb everything—not just the words we say, but our emotions, reactions, and our body language. At this age, they learn by imitation, observation, and hands-on exploration. 

What’s more, children are just beginning to understand emotions, but without abstract reasoning.

This means that if a parent is frustrated on a trek, a child doesn’t understand “why.” All they know is that trekking equals “bad.”

Children effortlessly pick up phrases and expressions. They’re also keen observers of perception. Your perception of the outdoors automatically becomes theirs.

If you hesitate at a steep path, they hesitate too. If you complain about the heat, your children will suddenly feel it more.

Children instinctively love the outdoors, until we teach them otherwise. If you approach the trek with excitement, children will also see it as an adventure.

Beyond trekking, this is also about how children develop attitudes towards challenge, discomfort, and exploration in life as well.

The flipside

On the opposite end of the spectrum are overenthusiastic parents - pushing their children, making even a nature walk into a competition with other children.

Instead of letting the child be - and explore and gently nudge - they tend to prod, suggest, point out, to an extent that children do not develop their own observation or curiosity. 

Both extremes don't work. Finding the middle ground - keeping an eye, but letting go and encouraging rather than pushing- is the heart of the skill parents must develop.

Making the most of being outdoors with children

How can we make being outdoors memorable and enjoyable for a child?

• Let them have their own experience. Instead of rushing to interpret the outdoors for them, step back. Let them feel, touch, and explore on their terms. Be there to answer questions, but not to decide or control the narrative.
• Meet each other halfway. If you think a day trek will be too strenuous, prepare for it together. Train, pack, and set expectations as a family. Or, start smaller—nature walks, park visits, slow explorations that feel achievable.
• Model resilience and wonder. If you hit a rough patch, frame it as part of the journey. Instead of, “This is too hard,” try, “This is hard, but we’ll take it one step at a time.”
• Be genuinely excited about being outdoors:  Parents’ excitement, happiness, sense of anticipation and eagerness are contagious. It’s good to model it. Just a word of caution that this needs to be genuine - so feel it before you talk about it, and do not exaggerate.

The outdoors is a space where children are free to be who they are—curious, adventurous, and unfiltered. Adults don’t need to create the magic for them; it’s already there. We just need to make sure we’re not getting in the way.

Children become resistant to an experience if we resist it as adults. An exciting new world opens up for them if we meet a new experience with curiosity, too.