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The Born Wild project, Morgan Brechler and being an adventure mum

Writing about The Born Wild Project and Morgan Brechler isn’t as easy as it sounds. I’m sort of nervous and excited and I really don’t want to mess it up because the message is so important to me. I hope you read this and feel inspired and do some adventuring of your own.

I have never really thought of myself as an adventure mum and then I read about Morgan and Shannon and Alisa, Aly and Brooke and I thought, oh these are my people. I have never met them and we have never spoken but I feel like we speak the same language and we share two major things in common kids and the spirit of adventure. They are embarking on a project so exciting I truly truly hope we can help them make it happen. Its takes a village to raise a child they say so let’s get this village together.

Hi Morgan, how are you doing and where are you today?

Oh hello! I am TIRED today, this fall has been a real doozy for me. Extra draining, lots going on. I am finally starting to find some calmer grounds here. I am in the office today, working. I do work! Full time. I will be heading out to school in a few hours. One more week until finals, very much looking forward to winter break! That’s is FOR SURE.

We have never met but I have admired your adventuring travel style from afar. Can you tell me a bit about your day to day life and how travel plays a part in it?
My day to day live is honestly pretty “normal.” Well normal to us.  : ) During the week when we can we try to squeeze in evening hikes, eat dinner outside or hit our local climbing gym..  I am working full-time right now for a landscape design company and I am currently in school for Sustainable Agriculture. We are full-blown weekend warriors, currently (plan is to change that down the road!) Its exciting planning out our weekends for a new adventure, they are quick but you would be surprised with how much you can do in 48 hours! I highly recommend the weekend warrior lifestyle for anyone with a busy work/school week who feels like they don’t have time. We do stay a lot in Arizona, there is endless exploring here and we could spend multiple life times trying to see it all. Its beautiful and will forever be my favorite place to spend time. We do get out of state though quite often though.. My work is flexible when I need a little bit more time than just 48 hours to adventure.
 What inspired you to focus on your outdoor lifestyle? Did you grow up in nature? 

It’s something that is important to me because as a child spent a lot of time playing outside, riding horses and traveling with my family. As I have gotten older I have seen the drastic changes in society and how less and less children are getting outside and more of them are getting ipads for birthdays and Christmas. I’ve always been really saddened by this. It’s extremely important for children to connect with nature and form a bond so that there are people here on this planet to protect for all the future generations. I also strongly believe that its connected with the way children eat now days as well.. If kids are outside playing more feeling good, they are less likely to eat processed foods and be over weight. And lastly, of course becoming a mom made me want only the best childhood for my daughter Hadlie, and I truly believe the best childhood is one spent mostly outdoors.

 

 

I know you are brave and intrepid and confident but what single fear do you have to conquer every time you travel with your daughter?
I think most parents will agree that they just want to avoid any meltdowns or temper tantrums at all costs. Traveling to and from destinations with Hadlie is a bit of a mystery at times. We never know what Hadlie we are going to get. More than most of the time, she is so loving, positive and we have the most wonderful times and experiences. But she’s not a perfect kid, and we are not perfect parents. When the attitude comes, it’s relentless! We have found though that as soon as she’s outside the attitude, temper tantrums and negativity fades away.
Can you share any advice that has helped you overcome it? ( as we are sharing, mine is heights and I recently hiked an active volcano! I’m not cured but it did help.
I believe that there’s always a reason why kids act up, deeper than “they are just kids.” Whether that be because they are tired, or hungry or their schedule has really changed a lot… Maybe it’s because they aren’t getting enough attention, or have been in the car too long..  There are so many factors. So my advice is to remember that. Kids most certainly test our patience and know how to push all our buttons. But there’s always a reason. I try to make sure in the car on long road trips there’s *plenty to entertain her and we take A LOT of breaks.  * For car entertainment we do a lot of playdough. I will bring a tray with us so she has something to put on her lap and has a little work area for this. As well as other crafts. I typically will get her a new coloring book every road trip to bust out as back up if all else fails.

I have been reading about the latest project you are involved with the Born Wild films and I was wondering where it all started? It’s so incredibly exciting. I just read Jay Griffiths book Kith and the topic of children and the wild just keeps coming up for me. 

So it actually all started as a conversation between Brooke, Shannon and I and we had met Aly on a Havasupai girls meets up I hosted over the summer and knew we wanted her to be involved in it not only because she’s amazingly talented but we had no idea where to even begin. She has since helped make this project bigger than we ever dreamed of. I have so much love and appreciation for Aly and Alisa. Really excited to work with them.. and Brooke and Shannon!

I’m always looking for people to adventure with and find it quite isolating being a parent when it comes to interacting. How did you get to meet these incredible women? 

I have found it difficult to find other mothers that share my sense of adventure in my local area which is what is so amazing about instagram, it connects people from all over. Brooke and Shannon and I have been following each other since the beginning of our instagram days (about four years.) Finally getting to meet them in person was so surreal and amazing!

What do you hope to achieve through making a film like this? 

The mission of the series, and the community-centric website that will compliment it is to empower, inspire and educate parents to raise kids who are connected with wilderness and wildness. I personally, want to be able to show other families that even when you work a busy day to day job or have other things going on.. You can always find adventure and its all about balance.

How can people help sometimes it’s not always about money. Is there other ways people around the world can get involved, lodging, screenings??

The main way people can help support this project is by telling anyone and everyone about it! Spreading the word is vital! We have had so many supporters that have been sharing about our Kickstarter like crazy, help like that is truly appreciated.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/5733890/born-wild

 

The Born Wild project Morgan Brechler and being an adventure mum

WANT TO INSTAMEET ALL THESE INCREDIBLE BEINGS?

https://www.instagram.com/morganbrechler/

https://www.instagram.com/shannbenntt/

https://www.instagram.com/brooke.froelich/

https://www.instagram.com/bornwildproject/

 

 

 

Tags: Adventure MumAdventure with kidsArizonaBorn Wild ProjectFamily TravelJay GriffithsNEWSTips and Trickstravel bloggerTravel ToysTravel with childrentravel with kidstraveling with small childrenTraveling with toddlers
MyWellTraveledFriend: My name is Anna Su and I'm a solo mum slow traveling the world with my son Oscar Chang. We are making memories, chasing adventure, enjoying beautiful things and indulging in our time together. We hope we inspire you and make you laugh along the way. For collaborations please contact us at hello@mywelltraveledfriend.com
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