To Be Or Not To Be [A Kid Again]
It’s the time of year when nature paints us a beautiful canvas of reds, yellows and oranges, the smell of Fall and apple pie always drift by, and we exchange our tank tops for warm sweaters. It’s Autumn. But today is special because it’s also Halloween.
The holiday fairies did kids right with Halloween. There are none of those pesky religious traditions to attend to, parents don’t even object to opening their wallets to plunk down hard-earned dinero for costumes and mass quantities of junk food, there are parties at school, and at night, kids get to dress up as whatever fantasy alter ego they choose and parade around their neighborhoods demanding free candy from all the adults.
Halloween is the embodiment of what it is to be a child. It’s pure, unadulterated [pun intended], responsibility-free F-U-N. Kids throw off everyday personalities to run footloose and fancy free in a world of their own creation. Halloween is a day of escapism that is not only accepted by society, but encouraged.
But let’s get real. This is an adult’s pseudo-sociological interpretation of Halloween. For kids, Halloween is is just like any other day, except that there’s free candy. Oh, and that catchy little “Trick-or-treat, smell my feet” ditty. But other than that, Halloween is just the last day in October. Because kids are always carefree and happy. (Or, at least, they should be.) They live in a world of few responsibilities and even fewer problems. Kids lives are simplified and they are able to concentrate on those things that we all want to pursue: happiness, fun, and the simple joys of life.
Whenever I’m mired in stress, find myself up to my eyeballs in work, or start sinking into a pit of scary adult problems, I think to myself, “I’d give anything to be a kid again!” It would be great to shed my über-accountable, ultra-responsible skin and be a kid again. Except that it wouldn’t.
Maybe I take the hypothetical a bit too far, but it would not be great to be a kid again. The fantasy is great, but in practice? I think not. Because there’s a steep price to pay for being a kid. The reason children have no responsibilities is that they are not trusted with them. Children’s lives are guided by rules: what teachers say, what parents say, what the laws of society say. They have few freedoms.
I can’t imagine making the conscious decision to go back to being 5, 6, or 7 years old… back to a time when I believed my parents to be omniscient, when I was unaware of anything more complicated than tying my shoes, and when my biggest worry was how to master the art of correctly forming capital letters. A time when I couldn’t choose my own bedtime, when I couldn’t make my own dinner, when I couldn’t pick up a book and disappear into an uninterrupted fantasy world.
We are sheltered as children, and this is good. It allows us the ability to learn and grow, to see the world with innocent eyes, wondrous of its beauty and ignorant of its evils. But children do not have the ability to choose anything for themselves, a privilege that I greatly value, even if that means that I have to take the bad with the good. And, to be honest, now that I’ve gotten to know this world a little better, I’ve fallen in love with it, flaws and all. I wouldn’t go back to a time when I was protected from some of its less desirous aspects. Because that’s not what life is all about. Or at least not for me.
I make no value judgments. I think it takes a strong person to say they’d really like to be a kid again. So what about you? Would you go back? Could you consciously decided to forfeit all of your knowledge and freedoms for the bliss of ignorance? Or are you more like me? Are the pros of adulthood worthy of the cons?
First I have to say that even though you are not a child anymore, you have the same innocent expression in the first photo as in your About Me photo. Your smile is beautiful.
I think the best thing about being a kid is the learning process to be able to live well as an adult; free will is the most principal value/right that a human been can have, and you just can be completely free when you can be responsible for yourself.
Anyway when have your own bebitos, you can be a kid again, at least for the best parts (while you are playing with them) and be an adult the rest of time (when you are free to choose).
I always think it’d be fun being a kid again, I don’t actively try to be a kid, but I can’t help but feel like one. I long to go back to the days of simple school, where you went to class everyday, came home and that was it, except for homework, that I rarely did
you’d be without a care in the world, not having to worry about tomorrow.
Nowadays with work, life, university and responsibilities, it’s hard to even imagine acting like a kid again, but we try…it’s just in us to try and go back to how things were, the innocence, the care-free life. I do miss it.
Verny, I SO agree with you, she looks adorable in those pictures, and has the exact same smile now as she did then, you’d easily be able to say thats Erin-as-a-kid if you saw the pic.
As I said on IRC, “I can see the evilness started early in age.” Regardless, I think this is a very good post. It made me laugh too, because people around my age should be doing more grown-up things, but yet I have friends that are 15-16 and going Trick ‘or’ Treating tonight.
Anyhow, even though I am only 15, I wouldn’t want to go back to 5-7 years of age. With age comes responsibility, and with new responsibility come challenges to overcome, with some sort of treat at the end. Not the same treat that the kids get at Halloween, but perhaps having a degree from college, starting a family, or even growing old in age is a treat better than candy, because you then get to observe the world around you go through the same things you did.
I badly want to be a kid again, It was so much fun, Go to school, come home and enjoy your time playing with friends. Absolutely no responsibility
Anyway, Happy Halloween Erin.
This left me a little bit puzzled, I must admit. Didn’t quite get your meaning here. Go back? Where? Is it really possible to go back when I’ve actually never left?
Seven years old, unaware of anything more complicated than typing your shoes? I was learning basic HTML
I’ve always been an avid reader, too, I think. I get your meaning, but I think you overstated the age: most kids do much more than that at the age of seven.
@Verny: You are, of course, right. We get to act like a kid again when we have our own children. But it’s a very fine line we walk… we have to be careful not to live a second childhood through our children. We must let them make their own mistakes and enjoy their own victories.
@TechZ: The innocence is the attractive part for me. Some days, I’d give anything in the world to be as innocent as I once was. But again, the price to pay would be too high. ::sigh::
@Troycito: You aren’t 15. Come on now, stop lying. You’ve got to be at least 65 to be that sage and wise. :-*
@Thilak: I happen to enjoy my responsibilities… but I think that’s because I’ve always had some. Now, though, I get the good stuff (like living alone) along with the not-so-good.
@Oscar: I told you! You’s craaaaaaaazy. Old, my ass.
@Twey: Heh. Mr. Literal, are we? The shoe thing was a metaphor for that state of mind. And I started reading when I was 3/4. What I meant to focus on was the “uninterrupted” aspect… my parents always called me or wanted me to come to dinner or do a chore or something when I was little, so I never had a chance to just sit back and veg for as long as I choose.
I want be a kid again for these reasons:
1. I also like innocence like you. Kids are very innocent.
2. I had less things to worry about when I was a kid than what I have to worry these days.
3. I had my own weird imagination of how things work and life went on, which I would love to experience that again.
4. I was more active when I was kid than what I am today.
and many more reasons which I am not able to put up properly here.