More Than Entertained

Amber Moseley is a wife, mother and Senior Varsity Catholic Manager for FOCUS (the Fellowship of Catholic University Students). She and her family reside in Festus, Missouri.

Nick Smith is a seminarian for the Diocese of Birmingham in Alabama. He currently studies at Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans.

“Where are all the kids?” Has anyone else had this thought recently while driving around the neighborhood? For example, when is the last time you’ve seen a group of kids actually using one of the driveway basketball goals or backyard trampolines with any sort of frequency? I’ll wager that it’s been a while. Maybe everyone’s just in the backyard, but something tells me otherwise. It may come as no surprise that the play-based culture surrounding family life has largely been lost due to digital technology’s ruthless reign. Through the lens of a couple of classic family films, we can look back to what exactly we’ve lost, and what we can determinedly seek to regain. 

For many of us throughout childhood, summer was a little less than heaven on earth. Growing up in the 90s, I longed for summer. Not only did it serve as a break from school, but it also meant endless days in the great outdoors. I remember spending hours in our backyard playing kickball, running around our mowed-down diamond. We would go house-to-house playing made-up games. Where has this kind of summer gone? Kids look forward to the summers, not for the purpose of darting about the neighborhood, but so that they can virtually dart about online. They want to spend the sun-filled hours in front of a screen, playing video games with their friends from afar.

In The Sandlot, viewers retreat into a summer of old. Smalls is the new kid in town, and he’s reluctant to get outside and make friends this summer. Attempting to motivate him, his mom says, “I don’t want you sitting around in here all summer, fiddling with this stuff like you did last summer and the one before. I know you’re smart and I’m proud of you. I want you to get out into the fresh air and make some friends. Run around, scrape your knees, get dirty. Get into trouble, for crying out loud.” 

He soon meets and joins a curious group of boys who gather each day in the summer to play baseball. At the beginning of the film, Smalls (who is also the narrator) says about the team, “They never kept score. They never chose sides. They never even really stopped playing the game. It just went on forever. Every day they picked up where they left off the day before. It was like an endless dream game.” However, they get into “a bit of a pickle” when Smalls hits his stepfather’s baseball, which is signed by Babe Ruth, over the fence into the yard of “The Beast.” It’s a legendary dog who has allegedly ravaged the local community and has thus been banished to his owner’s yard. The boys band together to scheme a way to save the ball without getting attacked by the dog. After many failed attempts, they eventually send Smalls himself into the yard to retrieve the ball. Mayhem ensues in the climax of the film. 

In the narration, Smalls remarks that this summer would be one that they would never forget and what made this summer unforgettable for these boys wasn’t simply the sport of baseball. It was the camaraderie formed through spending endless days together on the field and at the pool. It was the adventure of working together to defeat “their enemy” and saving the signed baseball. 

Another great example of a time before the bewitchment of technology would be The Goonies. Taking place in Oregon, a group of misfit boys named Mikey, Mouth, Chunk and Data, who call themselves the Goonies, are on the verge of losing their houses to a country club development. While exploring Mikey’s attic, the boys find an old treasure map of One Eyed Willy’s supposed treasure hidden in their town. In an attempt to save their homes, they band together to locate the treasure. 

In their journey to find the lost treasure of One Eyed Willy, they of course encounter a few obstacles; they have a run in with the Fratellis crime family; meet an unlikely friend, Sloth; and encounter a series of life threatening booby traps before eventually finding the treasure. Just when they think they are in the clear with the treasure ship, the Fratellis family catches up and makes claim to all the gold, binding up the kids in the process. All hope seems lost as they walk the plank, but Sloth and Chunk show up just in time and distract the Fratellis so the others can escape. 

In the words of the Goonies, “I will never betray my Goon Dock friends. We will stick together until the whole world ends.” The Goonies brought the world of their imaginations to life and actually made a difference; they were able to get just enough gold to save their neighborhood from being transformed into a country club. 

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not advocating for our kids to go on adventures as dangerous as the Goonies and the Sandlot gang, but without stepping away from the screens and into the presence of others, there isn’t opportunity for adventure at all. The venturesome and daring moments we live out in our childhood make us the men and women we become. We grow up taking risks, standing up for what matters, and raising our children to do the same. 

As parents, let’s cultivate experiences our kids will remember and cherish the rest of their lives. Yes, watch these movies and others as a family, but don’t let your kids settle for only ever watching someone else’s story. Pope Saint John Paul II reminds us that “life with Christ is a wonderful adventure,” and it is the responsibility of parents everywhere to fight to reclaim summers for a childhood where imagination flourishes and adventure is endless.