Raising Outdoor Kids: Getting Your Omaha Family Off Screens

The bikes were already in the driveway before anyone had agreed on where to go. That's usually how it works. You get them out the door, and the plan sorts itself out. Ten minutes earlier there'd been the low-grade whine of a Saturday with nothing to do and a tablet within reach. Now they were arguing about who got the blue helmet. Progress.

Look, getting kids off screens isn't a battle you win with a speech. It's one you win with a door held open and someplace good on the other side of it. And Omaha, for all its flat reputation, has more of that someplace-good than most families ever use. You just have to know where to point the car, or better yet, the bike.

Start with the trails, because they're free and they're everywhere. The Keystone Trail runs for miles right through the middle of the metro, paved and mostly flat, which is exactly what you want when the youngest is still on training wheels. And every Omaha kid needs to walk the Bob Kerrey Pedestrian Bridge at least once, out over the Missouri River with one foot in Nebraska and one in Iowa. It's a little bit magic, honestly. Half a mile of open sky and river, and even the teenagers stop pretending to be bored somewhere around the middle.

Then there's the water. Zorinsky Lake and Standing Bear Lake are the two that families circle back to, both ringed with trail, both easy for a morning of walking, fishing, or just throwing rocks, which is an underrated childhood activity. Standing Bear shows up in our guide to the best parks in Omaha for families, and it earns the spot. Pack a cheap fishing pole and a container of worms and you've got a whole morning, no screen in sight.

When you want the real thing, cross into the woods. Fontenelle Forest down in Bellevue has a mile-long boardwalk that floats you right through the trees and out toward the river, and it's stroller-friendly and wheelchair-accessible, so nobody gets left behind. For the older kids who want to actually climb something, head across the river to Hitchcock Nature Center in the Loess Hills. Real hills. A lookout tower. Five bucks a car. It'll wear them out in the best way.

Winter is where a lot of families quit, and they shouldn't. The cold is not the enemy. The couch is. Omaha has sledding hills that fill up the minute there's snow on the ground, and a thermos of cocoa turns a twenty-minute run down a hill into a whole afternoon. Bundle them past the point of complaint and let them go. Cold cheeks and wet mittens are the memory. When the weather truly wins, and some days it will, we keep a list of the best indoor play places in Omaha for burning off energy without the sunshine.

Spring and summer, the whole metro opens up. Biking gets easier, the splash pads turn on, and you run out of excuses. If you want a bigger day, Eugene T. Mahoney State Park is a half-hour down I-80 with paddle boats, trails, and an observation tower. And when the budget's tight, it doesn't matter much, because our roundup of free things to do with kids in Omaha this summer proves the best outdoor stuff mostly costs nothing.

Don't overlook your own backyard, either. Some of the best outdoor childhoods happen in a fifteen-foot patch of grass. A garden hose. A pile of dirt. A tent made of an old sheet. Fireflies at dusk that the little ones will chase until they drop. You don't need a destination for any of that. You need to send them out and not call them back too soon. We made the fuller case for this in our piece on the quiet gift of a screen-free home, and it starts right out the back door.

Here's what nobody tells you. The hard part isn't the kids. It's you. It's finding the will on a tired Saturday to load the water bottles and air up the bike tires when the couch is right there and quiet. But once you're out, once you're standing on the bridge or watching them fish or pulling a sled back up a hill, you remember why. Nobody ever came home from a hike wishing they'd stayed in.

So start small. One trail. One lake. One Saturday. Get them out the door and let Omaha do the rest. The screens will still be there when you get back. They'll just matter a little less.