“Go outside!”

That is a statement, plea and often times downright beg that parents for generations have said to their kids.  Yesterday in New Jersey was one of those late summer/early fall days that you love.  Sunny, not too hot, a bit breezy.  Outside weather.

While I challenged my boys to play go outside and play, I realized that as a kid I did the same thing.  I wanted to play inside, unless of course, I, not my parents, made the decision to go outside.  Back then it was Pong and Atari that had me enthralled, along with nine TV channels (if the rabbit ears worked …and that included PBS).

So why do kids have the natural tendency to want to play inside?  I thought about it some.

My answer is that we love our homes and do everything we can to make them warm, inviting and fun.  Media rooms, TVs that are now bigger than people with hundreds of channels and tons of OnDemand options, couches that engulf you, Wii, Xbox.  It goes on and on and we want it all.  For inside!

But outside?  Outside of an occasional pool or trampoline in the neighborhood and basketball hoop in the driveway, we haven’t made that same investment.

There has to be an answer. So look what I found.  It already exists.  An outdoor, weatherproof TV!

This is a solution to a number of problems and a way to get your kids outdoors more often. And potentially even get them more active. So here are my suggestion to the future of outside:

• Get a weatherproof TV for your outdoor patio or deck
• Go with basic cable out there to limit the viewing options. Definitely no Netflix or other movie options.
• Remove any comfortable furniture so kids won’t just lounge on the couch to watch something.
• Hook up the Wii or XBox Kinect and get some active games to guarantee some movement

Soon all of the kids in the neighborhood will be enjoying a Dance Dance Revolution tournament in your backyard. And you’re instantly upgraded to the coolest house on the block status.

Image courtesy of SunbriteTV