Getting a hobby can help improve your mental health and give you new skills
Today’s phrase du jour is a friendly suggestion, a snarky insult and a 9,000-square-foot store in Uniontown, Pennsylvania.
It is…
“GET A HOBBY!”
I bring it up because, last month, the Harvard Graduate School of Education produced an online seminar that explained how hobbies such as music, dance, art and writing can “sustain kids' mental health and well-being.”
I also bring it up because, nowadays, a common complaint among my friends with kids (and grandkids) is that these youngsters have no hobbies. Or, more specifically, these youngsters have no hobbies that don’t involve phones and tablets.
And hiding in the basement.
And staring into space.
Sure, looking at 30-second videos on TikTok can be fun. But is it a hobby?
For those who’ve forgotten, a hobby is a pleasurable activity done regularly in one’s leisure time.
Keyword: ACTIVITY.
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When I was a kid, “get a hobby” was a friendly suggestion. Today, most people use it as a put-down — another way of saying, “mind your own business” or “you have way too much time on your hands.”
My childhood hobbies were varied. Outside, I enjoyed handball, stickball, rollerskating and, especially, basketball. I liked camping out with friends in my backyard. And I really enjoyed target shooting. (We inherited about seven guns from my father’s stepfather.) And catching things: Butterflies, fireflies…
When I was 9 years old, living in Queens, friends and I asked my mother for some American cheese.
“You kids just had lunch,” she said.
“Oh, it’s not for us,” I replied. “We’re around the corner, trying to catch a rat.”
(We never caught him. And, for the record, we never used our guns to kill animals. Or take hostages.)
When I wasn’t out doing all those other things, I rode my bike. For HOURS.
In other words, I spent a lot of time outside. Today, I hardly ever see a child out of doors. And when I do…
“What’s that, over there? In the grass?”
“I think it’s a child!”
“A child? Really? What’s it doing outside?”
“No idea. Maybe its house is being fumigated.”
Inside, I collected stamps, records, comic books, Batman cards, baseball cards and postcards. I wrote to chambers of commerce around the country requesting travel brochures. (I never went to any of these places until I was a lot older, but I enjoyed looking at the pictures. And free stuff is always nice.)
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One Christmas, I got a chemistry set and proceeded to send away for more and more lab equipment — flasks, beakers, Bunsen burners, chemicals. (Our basement looked like the set of “Young Frankenstein.”)
And, when I was 10, I got my first typewriter because, believe it or not, I wanted to be a newspaper reporter.
I’ve always enjoyed writing. And reading.
Today, in good old 2023, I’m baffled by the banning of books that I was required to read when I was enrolled at Holy Cross High School.
Does book-banning concern me? Sure. I’d be a lot more concerned about it, though, if I ever saw anyone under 20 actually reading a book. Or — God forbid! — a newspaper.
(Seeing someone under 20 reading a newspaper while standing outside would probably kill me.)
If the kids in your life do have hobbies, good for them. If they don’t, there are a whole bunch to choose from, ranging from the traditional to the totally weird, that could — as the Harvard seminar concluded — sustain their mental health and well-being.
The traditional ones (music, dance, athletics, hiking) are time-honored classics. Others include gardening, astronomy, photography, model building and yoga.
Go to a hobby store — such as Get a Hobby in Pennsylvania — and you will see an exciting new generation of remote control-operated planes, trains, cars and trucks.
A “toy” jet that retails for $649.99 has to be seen to be believed.
Among the “new millennium” hobbies is something I first did about 10 years ago. Geocaching involves using a smartphone or GPS to find items hidden all around the world.
Part of this hobby’s appeal to young people is that it incorporates the technology they use every day. They can discover more about it at geocaching.com.
Want to collect something different? How about elements from the periodic table? (Well, except the radioactive ones.) A helpful guide can be found at luciteria.com/blog/2020/7/21/interested-in-element-collecting.
Go to toyvoyagers.com to find out how you and your family members can send your favorite teddy bear (or other toy) around the world, where it will be photographed on a mountain peak or in front of the Eiffel Tower, along with notes from toy hosts about the places where the photos were taken.
The wackiest hobby of the moment? That just may be extreme ironing, in which people iron clothes while rock climbing, swimming, snowboarding and water skiing. Google “extreme ironing” for additional details.
And, if all else fails…
Have you ever caught a rat?
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Getting a hobby can help with mental health and give you new skills
