Karina Jones is a real-life ranch wife in the Nebraska Sandhills and one of the most highly sought-after speakers in the cattle industry nationwide!
It’s time for your mid week check in, right here on Ranch Raised.
The culture shift in how children occupy their free time can be seen everywhere. I remember growing up, my sister and I had a Shetland pony named Lightning that was a part of our every day play. We used ropes and what ever we could find to strap backpacks and bags stuffed with blankets, babies, snacks, and water bottles. We would head off into a tree row or pasture and imagine all kinds of scenarios. Those days were the absolute brightest part of my childhood.
Those memories came flooding back to me when I read that today was Global School Play Day! Experts are now recognizing that the loss of free play in our society is adversely harming the development of our children. There is nothing better than the sounds of hearing my two little kids play “school” or “restaurant” in an adjacent room. Or watching my big girls ride off on their horses to go check a pasture of calving cows. There is so much growth that happens with in a child when we unleash them from constant adult supervision and direction. When we allow them to spread their wings, use their imagination, think & problem solve it creates positive changes in a child and increases their confidence. Last year, I read the book, “The Anxious Generation”, and it completely affirmed what I knew I was witnessing in this generations children. They are slipping away from us and into a fictional world that is changing them and the course of their futures and not for the better.
So let kids get together to play and socialize, even as teens. Take away the screens and encourage making messes, getting dirty, and just being kids.
Karina ranches with her husband, Marty, and 4 children near Broken Bow, NE. She grew up in western NE, with roots also in southwest SD. The cattle industry and raising kids is her passion.
Watching the cattle industry go the path that it has gone, she could no longer sit quietly at home checking cows, fixing fence, and doing all the everyday tasks wondering when some else was going to make it all better. As she became more active and outspoken on industry issues, she was asked to join the R-CALF USA staff in September 2020 as the Checkoff Petition Campaign manager. That position transcended into her former role as full time Field Director for R-CALF USA.
Listen to Ranch Raised on a Your Ag Network hometown station or www.youragnetwork.com where she talks about her daily life on the Jones Ranch.
Cattle producers are her people. She will meet you at the county fair, at the sale barn, or anywhere the dusty trail leads.
karina@youragnetwork.com or visit facebook.com/ranchraisedwithkarinajones
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