You love hunting. Maybe it's been a tradition that has been passed down from generation to generation. So it'd be logical to assume your kids would just follow in your footsteps and enjoy hunting too, right?
Well as our friend Brian Bauer from BowHunterPlanet writes, that hasn't exactly been the case in his household. Brian wrote a nice firsthand account of what it's like to raise a non-hunter in a hunting household, and what that actually means (or doesn't, really) to his relationship with his daughter.
A Hunter Raising an Anti-Hunter
By Brian Bauer
I know, what a weird title? I really didn’t know how else to describe our household. My thought was I am a hunter so naturally, my kids will grow up with it and become hunters too right? Not so fast.
My name is Brian Bauer, my beautiful wife and I have three wonderful children. Sara "my anti-hunter” age 11, Emma "my hunting partner” age 9, and Nicholas who is too young to determine his interests. I started hunting with my cousins Joe and Dave when I was 14. My father was never into hunting, but my cousins Joe and Dave were and they to get me started in hunting. As I have grown, I’ve learned to appreciate so much about hunting. The peaceful surroundings, clean fresh air, and the getaway from the 9 to 5 everyday life. These experiences are what I’ve always wanted to share with my kids. The harvesting of an animal is a bonus.
From the day Sara was born, she was always into animals. All of her toys were animals. She really had no interest in babies or dolls. Wherever we went that had animals, she was spending all of her time petting and playing with them. It was almost as if she was drawn to them and them to her. She loved animals. I love that about her. Vicki and I have always believed our kids can lead the way on what they are interested in. If they want to pursue something further like swimming, softball, band, and etc. well, then that's where we go. We wouldn’t pressure them into liking what we liked. I believe we do a good job of introducing them to a lot of things, and they then take it from there.
I wasn’t sure how Sara was going to feel about her dad being a hunter once she was old enough to understand. I love hunting and the outdoors so much and I feel like it’s my job to show her that hunters are not bad. I want to give her every opportunity to join in on the experience if she would like to.