← The 1000 Hours Outside Podcast
Loading summary
Transcript40 lines
- [00:00]
A
Welcome to the 1000 Hours Outside podcast. My name is Jenny Urs. I'm the founder of 1000 Hours Outside and for the fourth time, Treasured Guest Russell York is back. Welcome.
- [00:12]
B
Thank you so much. Number four. We did it.
- [00:15]
A
Number four. You know, I was thinking about the. When we connected. So you have, you are this incredible entrepreneur. You started this company where you're making smart watches for kids and really are the very intentional about making sure that technology works for the family and works for the child. And we have these eye opening conversations. Like when we first connected, it was years ago. I remember it was in the summer because we were over by Lake Michigan. We live in Michigan. We were over at Lake Michigan and I was speaking at an event. So I was like kind of with the kids and then we'll go to the event and then come back and they were wearing the Cosmo watch and we were picking blueberries. I mean, I have this distinct memory of like how old everybody was. And we had these conversations, Russell, about how so these big tech companies have all the opportunity in the world, all the money that you could probably ever really imagine to make technology that is healthy for kids, for family life, and yet they haven't. And I had never considered that before. And here in you swoop, and there are some other companies as well that are taking a different look at the technology that we use and the actual technology and doing it differently. But I had never considered like why. Yeah, why isn't Apple making something that's super friendly for kids? And, and you did that and, and have done so much on the ground market research with families. It's been years now at this point. So can you give us a little bit of your backstory? This is a calling, I feel like.
- [01:43]
B
Well, first of all, I love that background because I remember that as well when we first connected. Right. And those were early days for Cosmo. And, and at the time we were, you know, we make this kid smartwatch and we were talking to investors and we were talking to early customers and there was a lot of skepticism that what we were doing was a viable thing. You know, technology is really hard to do. And when you're swimming around companies that are worth literally trillions of dollars, you know, the expectation is that you're not going to do well. Right. And I think at the same time, if I recall, like your podcast was relatively new. I mean, maybe a couple of years in at that point, it's been so interesting to me. And I think the reason we've kept connecting is because as your podcast has grown and as I'm watching your entrepreneurial journey, you know, we're both kind of in the same space here. Right where I think there's so much demand for a rethinking about how connection is done and how we engage with technology and of course, what that does to kids and the impact it has on the generation that we're bringing up right now. So, I mean, yeah, it really is kind of a crazy story and it's I think, still still really early days, to be completely honest.
- [02:52]
A
Yeah. A company that has trillions of dollars and you're doing a remarkable job with it. People just love the watches. We're going to talk about the different types of problems that it solves in families, in modern day families. But the announcement is that we have paired up. It's an incredible offer. So heading into the holiday season, I love gifts that allow for experiences and that allow for growth and allow for these skills that kids are going to need in this rapidly changing. Can you tell people about this brand new watch? Maybe I should do it. Who should do it? You do it.
- [03:26]
B
I'll lead off. Sure. I mean, this is the first for us. We've never done this before, so I'm excited too.
- [03:31]
A
Yeah, it's a first for us too. I'm excited too.
- [03:34]
B
Limited edition 1000 hours outside Cosmo smartwatch. And I mean, I guess we should lead off with the best part, which is that it's free. This is a $150 watch for Christmas exclusively. This product. We're going to do the thousand hours limited edition watch for free. Comes with a couple of months of free service. A band. This is meant to be really something that you can say yes to for your kid and your family. And we are trying to gift experiences here. This is 2026, the year coming up could be the year that families unlock a lot of memories and special moments. And so I'm excited about what this partnership can do for families.
- [04:12]
A
So we've been around for around you for a while. It's been several years and I think this is the best deal I've ever seen. I just want to read it. Okay. So this is the 1000 hours outside adventure bundle. This is the coolest thing. So you get the watch for free and it is incredibly cool looking. The wristband, I'll put the link in the show notes so people can go click on it. That's also free. So you get the free 1000 hours outside wristband. You also get the teal wristband and extra WristBand. Comes with one of our stickers. And then you also get three months of Cosmo membership for free. It is over $200 in value and it's exclusively available for 1000 hours outside famil. It is the best deal of the year. It's available for limited time and obviously there's limited stock as well. And so families have been really responsive to you and to this step into technology that's healthier for kids. It allows them to roam, it allows them to have more of a 90s feel of, of childhood. That matters a lot. And so this is a huge deal. So we're gonna be talking about that. I'll put all the links in the show notes. It's available now. So you could wrap this up for your kids for Christmas. You could put it with a Thousand hours outside tracker sheet and say, look, we're going to have the best parts of childhood here wrapped up under the tree and heading into 2026.
- [05:26]
B
You know, Jenny, one of the things that I love about this because, you know, when my marketing team came to me and said, hey, we want to partner with the Thousand Hours team and do a co branded watch, I was like, don't we want to license a Disney brand or something? Should we put Marvel on the watch or something? Wouldn't that make more sense? And they were like, actually, you know, the families that really care about this, really care about the message that the Thousand Hours team has. Right? And what we want this year to be about for us as a company, like our internal mantra is that we're, we're selling and we're, and we're trying to deliver to our customers a step up in life, right? This is a, like getting a bike for your kid. It's a milestone. So this is a connection milestone. And we hope it unlocks a lot of biking and I think we can talk about that. I've got a lot of kind of topics that are swirling in my brain around how kids can be active in 2026. But it's a milestone and the first time we're ever licensing a brand and doing a specific product partnership here is, is with the brand that you've built and for specifically for your audience. Only your audience has access to this special offer. And so I'm really excited that we're able to do that together.
- [06:30]
A
It is a really cool looking watch too. So it's, it's very exciting. You know, in general, most gifts that you get in life, you don't really remember. And especially when it comes to kids gifts, you know, they get broken, they're broken by February, know, kind of tossed aside. But my parents went in on a bike for me actually for Easter when I turned 15. And I still have it. I still have that same bike, it's blue and you know, now my kids use it. I've got like a 15 year old kids who, because it's a nice bike and that lasted and they also got me a guitar when I turned 16 from Guitar center and it just broke like it just bit the dust. But it lasted a really long, lasted decades. And so sometimes the gift itself will last a long time. But really it's the what you got out of the gift. All the friendships I built, all the trails I went down, all the music I played, all the music my kids played. So especially today, I think a lot of people are thinking about consumerism and, you know, and how they want to spend their money. And there are gifts that give for a long time, whether it's that gift itself or whether it's the things that come from the gift. So I wanted to talk about this. There's a woman I talked to recently, her name's Heather Shoemaker. She has a book called it's okay to not to Share. It's a great title. But the book is really about rights of children and that, that children have a right to play, which is pretty bold language. I don't think anyone is talking like that, you know. And I read this book and she said children have the right, they need it for their growth and development. And one of the things that she said that also people are not talking about is need large blocks of time to play. She wrote kids need plentiful, unstructured time to play in blocks of at least an hour. Free play demands large blocks of time of one or two hours or more to really encourage kids and allow them to engage in play. And that these shorter periods of time really don't allow them to get what they need out of it. And so what I really wanted to talk about is how the gift of a smartwatch in 2026, when we really want to allow our children to have the freedoms that kids used to have, the smartwatch allows for that. It's a vehicle. It's a vehicle for large blocks of.
- [08:47]
B
Play because off your kids go, it's a passport. Yeah, it's a gateway.
- [08:50]
A
So can you talk about that? You know, obviously you can get ahold of them if you need them to come home. You can give them an area that they can roam in, whether that's three blocks or five blocks, or can grow you know, and so there's just a lot there that really helps children with this right to play.
- [09:05]
B
Absolutely. I mean, I think you don't have to look very far in the world to understand how play is a developmental vehicle in all species, actually. I mean, you look at young lion cubs and sure, they're playing, but I mean, they're learning to hunt, they're learning essential skills. And I think when it comes to kids, gosh, we hear that all the time from families that they want to push their kids outside and say, come home when the street lights come on. And I love to hear that message being echoed in a lot of corners now. I think a lot of people are becoming aware of this. Right? I mean, the idea that kids need unstructured playtime and everything that comes with that. And I'd like to unbundle that. Right. What is a big block of playtime? Right. A big block of playtime might involve boredom. It might involve meeting a new kid in the neighborhood and having to hone your social skills. It might mean getting into a fight about how the game should be played and having to work out your differences. You need time to kind of go through a lot of the cycles of play and, you know, a 30 minute sit outside and touch the grass while healthy and probably adults should be. Should be doing more of that, making time to touch some grass. You know, kids need hours to really get the full value of playtime. You know, it's so much more than getting a little bit of sun on your skin and some fresh air. Right. I mean, that is the bare minimum. The rest of it is this. I mean, you guys literally talk about 1000 hours. You need hours and hours and hours of time to invent the game, recruit the friends, decide on the rules, then do the game, then argue over who won. I mean, that entire cycle of an afternoon is so essential. And it's also a gift, right? I mean, you were talking about the gift of the gifts that stayed with you. Memories, right? Memories are a gift. Memories with your siblings when they're young. And those memories are what tie you together for the rest of your life and all of the many seasons you'll go through together. You always share childhood and, you know, I think you can. There's a lot of special moments in childhood that happen around the kitchen table or around the Christmas tree, but a lot of those moments happen outside, and they happen in unstructured play in large blocks of time to the point of that author.
- [11:20]
A
Yeah, the author's really good. And in fact, all the things that you're talking about. She talks about, I should have printed her notes out. But maybe we'll talk about that on podcast. Number five is how all of those interactions really are critical. And that's what kids are supposed to be doing. They're supposed to be having all of these interactions when their children. So that they can learn those social skills, really how to stand up for themselves, you know, how to have their own boundaries, and then also how to assimilate into groups. And all of these different things that need to happen during childhood. And it doesn't happen when they're at school because they're supposed to be quiet. This is supposed to be happening in the afternoons and on the weekends, and it often is not because kids are in adult structured activities or because they're on technology and they're inside. So one of the things that you talk about is how, because this used to be the cultural norm, kids played outside in the neighborhood. And in fact, kids were outside at that. People say a thousand hours. That seems like a lot, but that is really what kids were doing up until the mid 2000s, I think. You know, they are outside for the afternoon, like you talked about, then they're outside on the weekend for hours upon hours. And in the summer, so the thousand hours probably at some point would have been considered low. But you talk about how the structure of the neighborhood has changed. And so whereas maybe there used to be 32 kids running around. And so there was safety in that, and there was parents that were kind of aware that part of society is not there anymore. And so the watch helps fill that gap.
- [12:46]
B
Yeah. And I actually was just reading a very interesting study. It was done in 2020 in Phoenix. And what the study concluded, this wasn't really what they were looking for, but what they concluded was that in neighborhoods where kids play outside, there was a much higher sense of community among neighbors. And so it's a chicken and an egg thing. You know, I think we've talked about this in prior conversations, but, like, when you take kids out of the street, you know, with the bikes and the, you know, basketballs and all these things, it actually makes the neighborhood more fragmented. Right. People are not as communal. Kids are such a glue in the neighborhood format. Right. And so, you know, if you look out on your street and there aren't kids playing, the interesting fact, and we hear this from members of Cosmo all the time, but when you push your kids out to play, other kids will come out as well. It's really just like a domino effect. And once you get two kids, then there's five, then there's 10, right? And, and before you know it, the kids are sharing their watch phone numbers and coordinating play times and organizing what the next game is going to be. It really does bring the neighborhood together. Interestingly, I think it's a very intergenerational thing as well. It brings seniors in the neighborhood out of their homes. And I remember this from my childhood. I think this is actually a really common shared childhood experience. But when you're running around the neighborhood at 2:00 in the afternoon, most of the adults are working. The adults that are around are the seniors. Right. And I had so many, you know, stand in grandparent types that would watch us play, you know, bring out ice cream or whatever the thing was on a hot summer day. And they loved it. I know they loved it. It was so great for them. You know, when you let kids out in the neighborhood, so many good things happen. And if you're intimidated by the fact that your street is quiet, you don't have to worry very long. Your kids will create that life. And if there are other kids on the block, they'll, they'll quickly find their way out as well.
- [14:44]
A
Ginny here with 1,000 hours outside, if you're like me, you know that the best gifts aren't the ones that end up on a shelf. They're the ones that get muddy, sun soaked and full of memories. That's why I am so excited to tell you about our friends at Womb Bikes and a family focused company that truly gets what childhood should feel like. Womb makes the lightest, smartest, safest bikes on the market. Designed specifically for kids from their very first balance bike all the way to those confident neighborhood cruisers. Every detail is built for little riders, from easy reach brakes to perfectly balanced frames. So kids don't just learn to ride, they learn to love the ride. And this holiday season you can give a gift that leads to a thousand hours of joy, confidence and connection. Outside. Head to womb.com and use the code outside.10 for 10% off new bikes and accessories. But hurry, it is only good until November 15th. That's Womb W. And use code outside 10 for 10% off by November 15th. This year, don't just give a bike, give them a reason to ride and a lifetime of adventure. You guys, the holidays are almost here and you know what that means. People to feed, guests to host and a whole lot of cozy moments ahead. I've been getting our home ready with Wayfair and it's amazing how just a few updates make everything feel warm and welcoming again. I grabbed a beautiful new dining bench so everyone has a seat at the table, swapped in flannel sheets for the guest room and found the cutest Christmas wreath. All from Wayfair's Black Friday sale. Everything shipped fast, the prices were unreal and it made me actually excited to host. This year. Wayfair really is the place to shop for all things home, from sofas to spatulas, rugs to refrigerators. And during their Black Friday event you can save up to 70% off. Plus they have styles you won't see anywhere else so your space actually feels like you. And if you haven't heard, Wayfair now has a loyalty program where you earn 5% back, get free shipping and have access to member only sales. It's totally worth joining, so don't wait. These early deals are already happening. Head to Wayfair.com now to shop Wayfair's Black Friday deals for up to 70% off. That's W-A-Y-F-A-I-R.com sale ends December 7th. As the Air turns crisp and the holidays draw near, comfort becomes the best gift of all. And for me, Quince delivers comfort that lasts. They have it all. 50 Mongolian cashmere sweaters made for everyday wear, denim that never goes out of style, silk tops and skirts that add polish and down outerwear built to take on the season. Perfect for gifting or let's be honest, upgrading your own wardrobe before those holiday photos. Honestly, Quince's Italian wool coats are at the top of my list because the cut feels designer. The quality rivals high end brands but the price is is about half because Quince works directly with ethical top tier factories and skips the middlemen. So you get luxury quality without the luxury markup. For me this season my go to has been my Quince Cashmere because it is soft, classic and somehow it goes with everything. Oh and my all black Quince puffer jacket is always at the ready for those chilly mornings. So step into the holidays with layers made to feel good, look polished and last from Quince. Perfect for gifting or keeping for yourself. Go to quince.com outside for free shipping and 365 day returns. Now available in Canada too. That's Q-U-I-N-C-E.com outside free shipping 365 day returns quince.com outside yes, so the thing about the play dates is actually a really big deal too because things have changed. I got this set of cards they're like dinner table discussion cards from this woman named Jessica Joelle Alexander. Actually, I'm sitting right here. They're called Raising Digital Citizens cards. And there are these questions in there, Russell, about digital citizenship, basically. And there's five or six maybe, maybe there's seven. There's a bunch of different categories like safety. And actually, I'm gonna. I'm just gonna find it really quick. What was interesting to me about it, Russell, that really struck me is that there are so many things to consider that you might not have thought you needed to consider. So the. There's cards about communication and bullying, critical thinking. And so there's questions that are like, what are some differences between online. So here's a good example. What are some differences between online friends and in real life, friendships? Why can a picture never disappear online? How can you show that someone has crossed a boundary for you because they are texting too much, or you don't like the way that they're teasing? And I just thought, Russell, these are questions that no one ever had to ask. You know, these were questions that wouldn't have made sense if you said it in 1995. A real life friend and an online friend. I mean, maybe, maybe instant messages out then. But, you know, at some point in 1962, no one's like, what's an online. You know, everyone would be like, well, what is an online friend friend? You know, what is texting? It really opened my eyes to how much has actually changed reading through these digital citizenship questions. How much has changed and how confusing that can be for someone who is parenting children who are being raised in an age when the questions are different. The questions wouldn't have even made sense a couple decades ago. So one of the things that you brought up is coordinating play times. And that is something that you wouldn't have needed to do in 1988 because kids came home from school and they played in the neighborhood. That was the norm. Well, now what's different? Kids have all these structured activities that they're doing. So can you talk about the texting part? It's limited. So everything is with the parent, pro, family, pro, parent, pro child all in mind. And that then they can. They can communicate. Because to your point, maybe the parents aren't home, you know, and they can find out. Well, you know, my friend, they do have piano lessons and then they do have gymnastics, but they will be home at 6:15.
- [20:19]
B
Right, right, right. Well, and I want to just tack on what you were saying about in 1995. Maybe there was instant messaging, but you Know, even if there was instant messaging, it wasn't like 8 year olds were exposed to that, right? And I think today it's actually surreal how young kids are when there's an immense amount of pressure for them to be connected in all the wrong ways, right. And exposed to it, even in unintentional ways. So, yeah, I mean, absolutely, the need to educate kids about the digital world is, is incredibly important. And you know, when you're in real life with a friend, you can tell if they're being mean, right? But on a text thread, would you maybe you wouldn't know, right? I mean, again, you've just started texting for the first time in your life. So I mean, that's one of the features that we actually added to the platform this year was for parents to actually be able to review text messages in real time. So you can see the text, every text between your kid and a friend or an aunt or uncle or anybody that you've approved as a, a contact. And of course, anyone that you haven't approved as a contact cannot text your kid. That's, that's a key feature. But when, when we're talking about this just enormous world, this digital unreal world that kids are inevitably heading for, right? Whether that's at 10, 12, 15, 18, whenever they get there, both feet in the deep end, you want them to know what they're doing, right? And it's so important that you have training wheels, right, that you can give them early on to help show them what that world looks like. I love that you have cards, right? I mean, that's such a great tool for some, some really intentional education. I think the watch in this context, the Cosmo Thousand Hours Outside watch, right, Is, is really meant to be a daily support system, right, that parents can use to hold their kids hand through those early days of digital connection. And what does it mean to text somebody? What should you say? What shouldn't you say? What are the protocols? What's the etiquette when you connect in the non real digital medium, right?
- [22:12]
A
Like do you text, text, text, text, you know, and they don't respond. I mean, it was really eye opening. It was kind of shocking to me really, how many new things you have to learn and be aware of. And then as a parent really should be walking your kids through a lot of these different scenarios. And so it is a sort of, it's like the stepping stone process. You know, no one just throws our kid in the ocean to swim. You know, there's all of these stepping stones along the way. And then there's also this piece too about that. A lot of things have changed. A lot of things have changed. So where the norm was, you look out your window and there's 14 kids playing outside. It's not like that anymore. And kids are busier and you may not know when someone is available or not. So it really is beneficial to be able to text Samantha down the street and say, you know, when can you play, you know, when are you home or whatever like that. So it's a, that's a feature that's on there or. And you talk about how you don't do shortcuts. You build everything from the ground up. It's a protected ecosystem for families and it's about safety and simplicity and affordability because it's free.
- [23:20]
B
I don't know how we're getting away with this one. How is it free? I don't know. But here we go.
- [23:24]
A
Limited offer and limited supply. I really want to talk about this. I, you know, I just feel like we need different solutions. It is a different time. It is a different time. Families are struggling, kids are struggling. And one of the things that really struck me and I've talked to these experts in this field, Dr. William sticks red and Ned Johnson, quite a bit actually. And I, and I really recommend their books, but they talk about control and how a big change in society is that kids are under a lot of control. They're under a lot of control in a lot of ways. Russell, obviously, you know, everyone's always had school, but now school is longer and now there's more homework and now the homework seeps into younger ages and then there's a lot of adult directed activities on the nights and the weekends. And even technology, certain technologies, it's like, well, it's all always feeding you the next video and there's algorithms, there's a bit of control there as well. So there's just a lot of control that kids are under. And this Dr. William Sticks read, he says that lack of control, a low sense of control. I'm going to read it. A low sense of control is the most stressful thing we can experience. And an absence of agency contributes strongly to all the stress related mental health problems affecting young people, including anxiety disorders, depression, eating and substance use disorders, and self harm. A low sense of control is the most stressful thing we can experience. So can you talk about how, especially in this day and age in 2026, how a kid's smartwatch can greatly increase a child's sense of autonomy and control over Their own lives.
- [25:02]
B
Yeah, it's powerful to hear that because I was just reading about this new trend that I think is maybe playing on exactly this idea, which is it's sor of a reaction to helicopter parenting. It's called unparenting. Right. And I don't know if you've heard of this it it. But it's basically the idea that the parents want to step back and create safe spaces for kids to be kids and to exercise personal autonomy. Right. And so. And by the way, that's exactly what playtime is, right? Outside playtime, where, and I'm going to define it very specifically, at least in my view, that's you're outside of the house. You're not necessarily in line of sight of a parent. You're not. You're certainly not being actively monitored. Right. It's not like your mom's sitting in the driveway in a chair watching you bike the street with your friend. Right. You've got a little bit of room there to be yourself and to, you know, live a couple of hours, make some mistakes and have some fun. I mean, that's, of course, the important part is have some fun. And I think that that's the kind of autonomy that makes such a huge difference. There was a study out of Norway that actually associated this kind of unstructured outside playtime with lower incidences of adhd. And it didn't specify whether that was more in boys or girls, though I have to imagine that's so much more impactful or, you know, maybe not so much more, but is more impactful for boys as there's so much study about how in those younger years they really need, you know, the ability to get their energy out. Right. And run around. But absolutely. I think that the point here is that we are maybe unconscious to the damage that can be done to kids when we feel like we need to control for every minute of their day, monitor everything that they're doing and make sure, and I'm doing air quotes here, make sure that everything that they do is okay. Right. And it's actually the opposite of that. The invisible harm there is that they're not practicing agency and they're not living so many of the experiences that they need to, in the first 10, 12 years of their development to become functioning young adults. Right. And the great news, I think, for many parents is that this other way of viewing raising kids, where they get more personal autonomy, and maybe you feel comfortable doing that by giving them something like a smartwatch or a kid's phone or whatever you Know, an airtag or whatever that thing is for your peace of mind. But the great news is that it's hopefully easier, right? It's easier for you as a parent, right? If you can just maybe you get an hour to yourself, maybe that's an hour to clean the house or read a book, but it's better for everybody. So I don't actually think, I can't imagine why there's any real resistance to this. I don't know of any actual resistance to this. I think it's just good news for everybody. But it's incredibly important. I think that parents are aware of this as they think about how they manage their kids lives.
- [27:56]
A
Yeah, okay, that is such a good point, Russell, because parents are losing their minds. I mean, it just feels like it is such a hard time to parent. And I, I think that part of it is because technology in, in the way that it's being overused often messes with kids ability to be bored. And there's less kids to play with outside because a lot of them are playing video games inside or doing things like that. And so then of course it's harder for the parent. I mean there were parents in the 1960s that would spend all day, other kids were doing things and doing things that were really healthy for them. The data is there now and all the research studies that show this is good for kids, every facet of their development. It's going to help with their schoolwork, it's going to help with their, their life skills going forward if they have this time to play. So this is a solution for the whole family. It's not just for the kid, it's not just for the neighborhood. It's not just for the seniors who haven't seen a kid outside playing maybe in a decade and who would love to see that life in their neighborhood then it's also for the parents who are like, I could, man, I could use an hour. I'd love to, you know, read a book or do a puzzle or sew or you know, golf or. I don't. Whatever, whatever it is you want to do, you can have the time for it if your kids can manage their boredom. And you know, I think there's the other piece. And I've thought a lot about this, Russell. As kids grow up, there's nothing you can do about it. You know, we've got it, we've got a child that's about to, you know, be done with high school. And so childhood is, is very rapidly nearing its conclusion and there's nothing I can do about it. And you hope you just don't, you know, you better hope you're ready, because that is a really big handoff of control. And so along the way, like, to the parent, it is a gift to yourself to slowly but surely allow them to step into adulthood. Otherwise you're going to be scrambling, you're going to kind of be a mess. It's hard enough. It's hard enough if. Even if you know it's hard enough no matter what. But along the way, if you've been giving bits of control and autonomy to your children, you know, at least you're a little bit more ready for it. Dr. Stickstrad also says this increasing a sense of control is one of the most powerful ways of treating mental health problems in children, teens and adults. And so it just this, this concept of, can we give back some control? We'll treat mental health problems that way. So this is one thing that a smartwatch can help in this day and age. First of all, it's helping kids to connect with the other kids that might be home, you know, because kids are busier and also giving them control. Can you talk about. It's such a cool feature. I remember when you told me about it, I was like, that's so brilliant. There's a feature of a. Of like a geofence. Is that what you call it?
- [30:43]
B
Yeah, yeah.
- [30:44]
A
So it's like, hey, you can roam five blocks and the parent doesn't even really have to pay attention, but it will ping you. It will let you know if they've gone outside of this boundary that you've set up with your child.
- [30:54]
B
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, and it's so funny because the boundaries when I was a kid, and I'm sure when you were a kid were sort of like, maybe it was a street, and your parents would say, don't go further than this street. This is the park. You can go here and not anywhere. Right. And, yeah, and of course, of course you could. Right. If you wanted to break the rules. And somehow you always got caught. I always got caught. But, you know, today there's digital tools that make that a lot easier for parents and maybe make the dilemma over, should I or shouldn't I let my kid run around the neighborhood? Which can feel scary if your neighborhood maybe doesn't currently have kids running around in it, or if you haven't pushed your kids out there to do that yet. You know, maybe they're on the younger side, they're six, seven years old, and you're like, like, I Want them to go have that fun. But I'm worried that's a totally normal thing, by the way. And, and Ginny, if I can unpack that right, like, why is it like, it just seems sometimes when you, when we talk about and frame the issue this way, it seems surreal that kids aren't playing outside and the parents are, can, can experience so much nervousness about it. Well, how many hundreds of thousands of hours have we all been scrolling these social media platforms that serve up so much content that fuels paranoia about exactly these kinds of things? The statistics are that in the, in 1970, 70% of kids biked to school and today less than 1% of kids bike to school, almost nothing materially changed. Yes, there's, you can make a lot of arguments about urban planning the way we've, you know, sort of urbanized, but that kind of a shift is a behavioral change that's fomented by something other than just, you know, maybe the sidewalks are narrower than they used to be or something. It's something else. Right. And it's, I believe that it points to social media. Right? It points to the media that we consume that informs our sort of nervous system. And so when you want your 7 year old to go to the park, your subconscious, your nervous system is throwing alarms that maybe you don't need to actually be worried about, but they're still there. And I think that the way that we feel is valid and important. And if you need an extra shot in the arm of confidence to feel like your kid is safe, do it. I think, like, do it at least push your kid to go to the park. Right? That's the important part is that at the end of the day they're getting that outside playtime. And so that's what we've built. We've built, you know, a number of, of safety features into our product that give parents that kind of peace of mind. The geofence in particular. Yeah, you can just draw on a map where, where the safe space is basically. And then especially with our latest product with Junior Track 5, where we have a dedicated GPS chip that's frankly beats my iPhone with accuracy and, and, and, and gives you an all day real time GPS location. You'll know where they are and if they leave that safe space, you'll get an alert and, and they will too, right? They'll, they'll know if they've, if they strayed outside of that, that area. So I think, you know, today, again, what Cosmo is trying to do here, we're not, I don't think making the world any different. Right. Like we're not there with, you know, guards on the street actually protecting kids in that sense. I think that what we're here to do is to make a safe space for families to push their kids outside and to feel confident about that decision. And for what it's worth, we know that it works for kids as well. Some kids feel safer about this as well. It's not just parents peace of mind. You might have a kid that doesn't feel confident that they can go and do some of these things, but when they're connected to mom or dad and they can call, that's a big boost for them as well. So it works both ways. And we've just seen this be really impactful for helping families to take back the neighborhood.
- [34:24]
A
It's a response to societal changes that there is not, you know, sort of this safety in numbers that there used to be. And the watch can bring that back. And you've told stories about how in these neighborhoods go from no kids outside to thriving, you know, in a very short period of time. Because it starts to fall like dominoes. And you know, I think if you experience it, so if you're a parent and you're like, goodness, wouldn't it be nice? Like, I'm gonna make dinner in peace and quiet. And from 4 to 5:30, the kids are running the neighborhood with friends and if I need to get a hold of them, I can. And, and we're kind of making this shift. You know, you start to experience it and, and it's life changing. And you start to see how much your kids are thriving. You start to sort of see their, their autonomy grow and their, their sense of control. And your sense of anxiety starts to lessen because what happens is you end up having these large swaths of time where your kids are making their own decisions. Like it's coming, you know, your six year old is going to be 16 at some point and you have to have had experiences of them being outside of adult supervision for an hour or two so that you don't feel like you're losing your mind. When they actually, you know, that now they're in a car now off, off they go. And these smaller experiences in a, you know, close to their home setting when they're younger really do so much for everyone. And they prepare, they prepare for that, that point in time when the child will be out of the home. So these are the stepping stones when they're young, when they're six, seven, oh my gosh. And everyone's gonna say six, seven. Cause that's all the kids say when they're five or six. When they're five or six. That seems so young, but norm. That was normal in culture, that kid. 4. That's what Dr. Peter Gray says for he was walking to the store. So in the 60s, a 4 year old got to walk to the store a couple blocks away, no problem. And that was culturally normal. So it's sort of bringing back that for children. You know, I love when I find a resource that helps make the Bible come alive not just for what it meant back then, but for what it means right now in our homes, our parenting and our everyday life. That's exactly what the NIV Application Bible does. It's brand new from Zondervan Bibles and it's packed with thousands of study notes drawn straight from the best selling NIV Application Commentary series. Throughout the pages you'll find original meaning notes that help you understand the context of each passage and application notes that connect these truths to modern life, including how we live, love and walk with God today. Every book of the Bible begins with an introduction for perspective and application. Plus there are questions for growth and even character of God. Articles that help you explore who he is and how his nature shapes our own story. It's beautifully designed, in full color, and it's one of those Bibles you'll reach for again and again. Find out more@nivapplication Bible.com that's nivapplication Bible.com it's also helping. And we've talked about this a little bit, but I think the non anxious presence is really important. So there's a lot of anxiety and parenting. Can you talk about, I mean, just give us some stories. I know you are so great about getting feedback from parents and getting feedback from families and, and then in turn getting feedback from neighborhoods about how this is really helping parents to lessen their anxiety.
- [37:41]
B
Yeah, you know, I'll, I'll give you one that I heard recently which, which was a parent that contacted us and said, you know, that the unexpected gift of the watch was that they gifted their friend, their, their child. Excuse me, friends in the neighborhood. And what they described was that their, their kid has friends at school, their kid has friends at church, but home can be very lonely and isolating. Yes, right. Because they didn't have friends on the street. They didn friends in the cul de sac, in the neighborhood, at the park. And you spend so much of your life there. And even though you have friends at school, it doesn't mean that that's enough. And so when they gave their child a watch and they were able to go and play in the neighborhood, they found friends in the neighborhood and it created this whole other layer of social wholeness to their child's social experience. And she called it a gift. She was like, we were giving our kid a watch, but what we didn't realize we were doing is we were giving them also the gift of friends. And you know, when we talk about this watch being a milestone or you know, when we talk about the second and third order consequences of, of safe family connection, it's. It's exactly that kind of thing. And I think you find the same thing on the parent end of it. Right? That peace of mind that parents get, that anxiety that you can reduce. Think about how much less anxious you'll be if your child is less anxious. If they're at home and they're at peace because they're socially fulfilled and they, and they have friends that are close by. It's such a peace of mind thing for your child. I mean, you can pick up the phone and call your mom, your, your dad, your friend from college, your friend from church, you can call people and your child can't. Right?
- [39:19]
A
Right.
- [39:20]
B
And so where your home might be, your palace and your, and your safety place. Right. And you can make dinner with a glass of wine and feel very good all the time, your kid might actually be in a slightly more frantic place because it's not quite the same for them. So connection is so important for people of all ages, including young kids. And that connection doesn't have to be online on forums, it doesn't have to be on video games. It can be in the real world in your neighborhood, or it can be in a very safe and parent monitored texting thread with a friend, but where you're able to see what's going on. And so I think that that's kind of what I would say is that there's, it's. The product that we're selling isn't a piece of hardware and the connection that we're selling isn't a mobile connection. It's the second and third order consequences, the dominoes that fall behind that. And so, I mean, I'm continually inspired to hear how customers experience and see this in their lives. And those stories continue to paint a richer picture for me about what family is today. Right. And where it can go. And frankly, Ginny, I mean, I'm, I'm so encouraged because even since you and I started talking a Few years ago. I feel like I'd be curious if you agree, but I feel like the dialogue is shifting about how families see technology and, and the amount of attention that's being placed on raising kids in more of a 90s way. Right. More outside, more in real life. I feel encouraged. I think people, people are really picking it up.
- [40:51]
A
Yeah. And maybe kicking some of these bigger tech companies to the curb for something that really works for childhood and works for development and works for the family. I love this thought of gifting your child. Neighborhood friends. What a gift. What a gift. Because there's the gift of the memories, there's the gift of the friendships themselves, but then there's a gift of all of the unseen. Unmeasurable, really. Immeasurable, I guess would be the word. Immeasurable. Outcomes of situations where a kid goes and plays, they just gain all of those human skills and those are the skills that the computers can't replicate. And so all of the people that I'm talking to are saying the human skills are the skills of the future. The relational skills, your, you know, your social, your, your emotional intelligence, all of those types of things. And those are gained through play. And can you be quick on your feet and are you a responsibility risk taker and you know, can you kind of jump in and find problems and solve, you know, find questions? Can you still ask questions? Are you curious? All of those things are facilitated outdoors. And so kids are, kids need, they need that time. And I think as a parent, you can imagine if you're, if you're sitting here and you've got a five year old and you're thinking, okay, you know what? I, would I really let my 5 year old walk to school? Would I let my 5 year old go around the block? What happens is if, if you do it once, you know, and it goes okay, and you do it again, you know, you, you both start to build those muscles that you need and, and it just grows over time. And so if you have this geofence, you could say, well, you know, we're just sticking with the block. We're, you know, you know, bike around the block a couple times, 15, 20 minutes or, or something like that, and then it grows and, and you gain this confidence as a parent that, oh, they were fine. Oh, all the things I was worrying about, you know, maybe a lot of them are exaggerated. Lenore Skinnies, he talks about that on free range kids, she said something like, if, if you really, if you wanted your kids to be kidnapped, how much time would they have to spend Outside, you know, in order for, statistically for them to be kidnapped. And it was something like 7,000 years. I was like a wild number. That's not the exact number people can find it in her book, but it was a, it was a huge number that, you know, like for the most part kids are fine. And so little by little you're growing together as a parent and the child like, oh, they were fine. Oh, they really liked it. Oh, they thrived. Oh, they loved the freedom. Dr. Stickstrad says you have to sit on your hands. He says the long term implications and impacts of parental over control for kids include anxiety. Okay, Perceived incompetence. It's like, who wants to give that to your kid? You know, I perceive I'm very incompetent. No, you know, we don't want that heightened belief that the world is frightening, a frightening place and an inability to withstand stress. So parents, while it's not easy to sit on your hands, do it anyway, unparenting. Sit on your hands and, and let them go. So this is something that will help with the anxious presence of the parents. It will help with your anxiety and it will give your kids some autonomy and that is going to help them quite a bit in their long term life as well as their relationships. So healthy relationships matter for happiness. And so giving the gift of friendship, friendship actually is a lot trickier than you might realize. You know, like I talked to this man who was saying kids that come and see him, he's like a psychologist, you know, and they're, they're trying to figure out how to make friends. And he's trying to teach him about eye contact and he's trying to teach him, you know, these different subtle things. And he's like, you can't really verbalize it. You can't have this set of rules. You just have to be exposed to other kids and other people in order to learn it in these subtle ways over time. So I love that idea of just your, your gifting friends and I relate to that because if the friends at school, if you ride the bus to school or you live a mile away or something like that, you know, the, the friendships might be really pretty far. And so to have friends that are like a couple doors down is a really big deal.
- [44:52]
B
It's a very unique kind of friend too. I remember that you do have different friend groups, right? And the ones that you go to the pool with in your neighborhood in the summer, they're a different kind of friend and they're really special. And you do grow up with them in a different way. You do Thanksgiving and they're across the street doing Thanksgiving with their family and yeah, it's really special. Neighborhoods should be more connected. I think that we're all missing something from that point, that community and I think kids can, can be a part of, of bringing that back. You know, if you could put a gift under the Christmas tree and it was friends, that would be an amazing gift.
- [45:29]
A
Yeah, a gift of friends, a gift of non anxious presence. Can you communicate to your kids that the world is actually a pretty safe place and you know that you share with your kids that you're not worried about them, that you, that you trust in them and that gives them a sense of confidence and independence and, and it really does a lot. There was this study where they measured kids pee and they can measure the anxiety and it like catches, you know, it catches from one person to the next. So you're really giving a lot friendship and autonomy and, and this message, this non verbal message that the world is a great place and you, you can find a lot there for you and there's a lot of adventure and I trust your ability to go out there and enjoy it. So a lot of things there. I'd love to talk too about just this. Lenore Skinnies, he calls it the right to roam. Lenore Skinnies, he wrote a book called Free Range Kids. She sent, and this is the interesting part too, I guess Russell, she sent her 8 year old, I think he was 8, home by himself on the subway in New York. And I would imagine by the time you're eight, you've probably done that ride however many times because you know how to get home and, and you've done that, you're 8 years old. And she got deemed America's worst mom. And then she wrote this hilarious book called Free Range Kids which is an incredible writer about these topics, about autonomy and about how kids should have some freedom. And anyway she gave this really telling historical view of how kids have lost the right to roam just over a couple generations. So here's what she said. She said if there's a grandpa in his 80s, I guess it would be a great grandpa in his 80s. And so, so that would have been like in the 60s. Am I doing that math right? No, it would have been the 40s.
- [47:18]
B
He's in his 80s. Yeah, 50s I think somewhere in there.
- [47:22]
A
Yeah. But anyways in the 50s or so that, that they were kids were going everywhere. They would walk a couple miles to the fishing hole, eight years old and go fish and Then the son, you know, who the great grandpa. So this would maybe been in the 70s, would have been allowed to go to the woods, maybe not quite as far as the fishing hole, maybe not several miles. You know, she said six miles. The kids, an eight year old could go six miles from home in the 50s, you know, then maybe by the 70s it's, you know, within a mile or two to the forest. And then by the 90s, you know, then the kid can walk to school a half mile and it's kind of been reduced to that. But a half a mile is still a lot of ground covered. If you can go a half mile radius from your home, there's a lot of places that you can go. And then she says, today, today kids that are eight are driven to school. They're not allowed to leave their black, and neither are any of the friends. Most of them don't even leave their yards. So, so she has this concept of like how kids have lost the right to roam in four generations, eight years old. So, you know, I, I think that's what you're bringing back. I mean, part of what's going on here is we have to bring back the things that did work and the things that were healthy for kids and were healthy for families and you kind of can experience, expand it back out. I don't think we're ever going to get back to six miles, but maybe we can get back to half a mile, you know, and, and have that being the norm. So can you talk about this? It's the wording that we kind of started off with, which is what really are the rights of children? You know, do they have the right to play? Do they have the right to some of their own time? Do they have a right to a certain amount of freedom, you know, to go from the home? And how can something like a Junior Track 5 smartwatch, how can that help kids to gain that back?
- [49:09]
B
I mean, I don't want to make it sound like this is somehow an American problem, but it is primarily a problem in America, which is interesting if you look at the data, right. Kids in Europe still bike to school, so you can't say it's an urbanization thing, right? I mean, urban planning is done differently in Europe, probably for the better. But you know, it's not just because kids here live in cities more than, than they did in the 1970s or the 1950s. You know, in Japan there's this thing, I'm not going to try and say the word in Japanese, but it's, it translates to My first errand. And toddlers are in cities, pushed outside to go and do an errand, to go to the grocery store to grab, you know, a bag of flour or whatever the thing is, and we're talking young kids, three, four years old. There's actually a Japanese TV show about this and they follow these kids around on their first errand. And it's very cute. And so, you know, if you start going down the list of things, right, Is it because we live in cities, is it because, you know, of the distance to school, is it because of the lack of access to nature? Like when you go down this list, you realize it's really none of those things. It's just a decision that we've made as a society because all of us take part in this in some way. We've all made these individual decisions. But it is something that we do here that's not done elsewhere. And we can change, we can decide that we don't want to do it this way anymore. We can give kids back the radius. And what's interesting is, and we're thinking about how we build this into our platform actually. How do we show parents, other concerned parents, right? You can very quickly pull up a list of every sexual predator registered sexual offender in your city, but. But you can't see how many hundreds of thousands and millions of concerned citizens there are, that if they ever saw a child in need of anything, would go out of their way to help. The world is very safe and we, I think, you know, need to begin treating it that way for the benefit of our kids. We need to give our kids the ability to run around streets and neighborhoods believing that there are actually so many good Samaritans there who are keeping an eye. If you ever see a kid, they don't need a balloon tied to their wrist for you to care about their well being, right? They don't need a special colored backpack for you to know that they're a kid. And so I think that that's part of where we're all going as a society. And there will be a tipping point at some moment. But already on a local level and in specific communities, it's already happening. Kids are playing outside again and there are bikes piled up by the stop sign in the neighborhood right where the kids have gathered and, and that kind of thing will spread and people like you and on platforms like this, getting the word out there is such a crucial part of it. I would like to believe that Cosmo is helpful to many families in making that an easier decision for Them as well. And ultimately it's just, I think something that inevitably wins in the world of ideas. The idea that kids should have a free range childhood is a winning idea. And so inevitably it's a matter of time. I believe.
- [52:20]
A
I stayed at this person, these people's house in Texas just recently I was speaking at a conference and they had a, like a little guest house in back. And I didn't know the family, but while I was there I got to know them a little bit. And the husband, his name is Isaac French and he has, he built this set of kind of like high end but smaller, I think Airbnbs around a lake and then sold them, it's called Live Oak Lakes. And he's like super successful in his twenties was really impressive actually. It was, it was cool to learn about. But what one of the things that he talked about and really stressed and I was able to stay in their guest house and he had a ton of books in there, so I was super curious and they were all about like landscape design. There were so many about that. You know, I never, I didn't realize that there was so many books about this topic. And he said that the thing that he focuses on when he designs is the outdoor space because you feel the best in nature. I thought, yes, that's the truth, you know, that the outdoor space. And is it enticing to get out there? And so, you know, and where I stayed, it was like there was these steps that when they put them in steps down to the little creek bed, you know, there was a huge deck, there were, you know, chairs out there. It was an enticing out there was paths and things like that. And I thought the enticement to the outdoors like that is the answer to a successful like one of these rentals. That's what he had found. And I just feel like it's, it's the same thing. It's. We, you know, kids feel so good outside, you know, we do too as adults that this is such an essential part of life as a human. And so the junior track five is just allowing kids, it's allowing them to get out there. And I, I love what you've talked about in the past that you're bringing people together who are for something. They are for technology that works for the family. They are for technology that is good for their children. And you could do this as a whole group, you know, you could have a whole group of people. The watch is free. Okay, you gotta call up your little, you know, your group where everybody hangs out Together you're trying to build kids friends and you can let them know that there is a Cosmo 1000 hours outside adventure bundle available and waiting for them. Limited supply, exclusively available for 1,000 hours outside families. It's a limited supply, limited time offer. It is really Cosmo's best deal of the year where you get the free watch, the free 1000 hours outside band, an additional band 1000 hours outside sticker, and three months of the Cosmo membership for free. It's over 200 value. And then you're going to have your own stories. You're going to write your own stories with your kids and, and the adventures that they have. I'm so excited about this. It's the first time we've ever done anything like it either. You know, you always talk about it. There's so many products I think that go along with getting outdoors. You know, like there's strollers and there's baby carriers, but really the main thing is to actually get out there. And so this, this is a really cool partnership for us because it hits the foundational piece of actually getting out there. Like going and doing it and seeing firsthand, that's my experience is like I saw firsthand how much our kids grew when we prioritized time in nature. And we are over a decade down the road here. And I'm so glad, I'm so glad that we prioritize that for our kids. It did monumental things for them and would have been even enhanced more had they had more neighborhood play on their own, you know, but this is a newer, you know, I came, I came along a little, a little late to the game for our older kids, not for our younger ones. But anyway, Russell, I'd love for you to just give a final word about the direction of Cosmo because I think it's great for parents to hear that you're constantly looking at feedback and hearing what parents have to say and constantly adjusting for what's good for families.
- [55:55]
B
Yeah, absolutely. Well, and I think, I think, I hope it speaks volumes that, you know, our first brand licensing moment here is with a thousand hours outside. I'm really honored that you guys are partnering with us on this. And I think if I was to summarize kind of what Cosmo is all about, in a world of increasing AI automations and you know, big tech, that's, that's taking advantage of the consumer. You know, Cosmo has human customer service. You can call us and we have a 10 second hold time. Right? That's, that's our internal goal. Is to pick up the phone within 10 seconds. We want to support families. We know who we're serving. It's real people with real kids. And I think at the end of the day, if Cosmo can win, it's in actually doing what we're talking about here. If we can actually take back the neighborhood, you know, that's the metric that we track and that's what we're trying to accomplish. So I think this partnership is a really cool effort in that direction to try and reach the people who are looking for exactly that kind of thing in their life with a product that's hopefully priced just right, free and, and at the right time. Give the gift of friendship this year.
- [56:57]
A
Yes, it is a perfect gift. It's an unbeatable holiday deal. Check it out now. It's a limited time offer and limited quantities available. There's a no risk 30 day money back guarantee. People can check it out@cosmotogether.com 1000 hours. Outside supplies are limited. Go check it out now. I, I would, I would check it out with friends. That's what I would do. You but grab three or four of your mom friends and be like, hey, let's do this together. And have 2026 be the year of neighborhood friendships and autonomy and freedom and a gift that allows every family to be a little bit less anxious. So, Russell, thank you so much for being here.
- [57:31]
B
Thanks, Jennifer.