There were screaming kids everywhere I turned.

Or so it seemed, as I stood in the center of a kitchen in the house I was babysitting in. A tornado of four kids, all under the age of 8, spun around me, wreaking havoc as they trampled over each other. With college debt looming over me, the job had seemed like a good idea when their frazzled mother had given me a call. I now understood her urgency to escape. This job was turning into my Everest, and I was running out of oxygen. Fast.

I had a few options before me. One, I scream at the top of my lungs and hope to scare them into silence. Two, I transform into mega-nanny and throw everyone in the corner for a time-out. Three, I resort to the Lord and Savior of parenting: the television.

Naturally, option number three was the most acceptable, so I plopped them all down on the couch with Juicy-Juices and Goldfish crackers for the next hour and a half. Lo and behold, that was all I needed to do to unlock the angelic versions of the little hooligans. They sat there with little trouble, wrapped up in blanket burritos until their bug-eyes had glazed over.

Aside from putting a severe damper on the whole idea of ever having children, this job made me wonder about how children are rewarded with so-called “relaxing” activities. From a very young age, most learn that leisure involves watching movies and playing video games. They are trained to believe that to relax is to not have to think, move or do much of anything, and this is their reward for working hard in school or with chores. This then carries on into adult lives, as activities like binge-watching Netflix on a Saturday while devouring junk food of choice or paying absurd prices to go lay on a tropical beach only to crisp up into a lobster become the ideal way to let loose after a long week at work. These are only some of the rewarding relaxation habits many of us have grown to enjoy, but what if even as children we were taught to understand relaxation a bit differently?

I am one to talk, for there have been countless times when I come home from a busy work day only to flop on the couch, flick on the television and proceed to sleep through to the middle of the night. I jolt awake after times like these, frantic and panicking that it is the next morning already. In the times where I have instead taken the evening to explore, hike or do something productive, I feel even more prepared to take on the next day. Though it takes a bit more energy, it is also much more fulfilling. There is only so much time in the day, only so many years in a lifetime, and the more I realize this, the more I am urged to take every minute I have to go out and experience the world instead of living through characters in movies.

There is no denying the enjoyment that comes with watching a hilarious new episode, but we seem to have forgotten that there are more rewarding activities out there for us to discover. Relaxation comes in many forms, and it doesn’t have to mean “vegging out” all day. Hiking, playing musical instruments, creating art, playing a sport: these are only a small sampling of activities that children should be rewarded with instead. They bring skills that last a whole lifetime, and though some may take a bit more effort than clicking a button on a remote control, they are worth it. Some can be meditative, others challenging, but they are all remain to be a break from the demands of school or work that will bring a far greater reward than the newest sitcom.