Another week and another study showing our kids are becoming moldy zombies from sitting in the dark, peering at computer screens and TVs for hours.

The latest research says young people have become almost completely detached from parks, nature and the outdoors. They even have a name for it: “Nature deficit disorder.”

It’s gotten so bad that California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has proclaimed a “children’s outdoor bill of rights.” It actually lists 10 things kids should experience outdoors by the time they turn 14.

A majority of the things I best remember in life were outdoors. Digging a snow fort in a drift. Fishing. I got engaged in Bluff Park in North Mankato on a Christmas Eve day and married outside in a park. I can recall a lot of little things — looking at goldfish in a pond with our granddaughter or teaching a grandson how to pack wet sand into a bucket to build a tower.

I don’t remember many of the times we watched TV, played video games or went to the mall together.

There are a lot of people trying to counter the trend, trying to give kids more of the things they should experience.

It’s not easy, as new studies — produced about every two hours — remind us.

There are the studies showing kids are desensitized to violence from video games. Studies showing kids are more obese and diabetic from sitting indoors.

Other studies tell us that when we are indoors we adults are usually doing things wrong. We need to make sure, the studies tell us, that we structure high-quality family time. The most important — and ALL the studies support this — is that you sit down at the table as a family during dinner.

That simple act, they say, will keep our kids from being obese, improve their grades, make them open up to us, and keep them off drugs.

I like to eat my meals in the easy chair, plate propped up under my mouth with the TV on. Still, if it’s for the kids, we thought we should give it a try.

The other night, we turned off the TV, told the teenager to sit down and had a nice meal together:

“What did you learn in school today?”

“Nothing.”

“Anything new going on?”