"Like a Kid Again"

In life, we tend to focus on all of the daily hustle and bustle of living. It's a natural and essential thing for all adults to do. We focus our time on our families and their daily needs, our jobs, errands that need to be run, things that we need to buy, dinner that we need to make, cleaning that needs to be done, pay the bills...etc. These are all "normal" and typical functions of the average adult. The last few weeks, I have been consumed more than normal in figuring what bills are getting paid when, how many hours I need to work each week, what things need to be bought, how much laundry I need to do...etc. In complete frustration, I asked myself "When did life get so complex?" What happened to the simplistic nature of life like when we were kids? Then, I began to think about all of the fun things I did as a kid, even in our small neighborhood...

This is a photo of the pool at Seberger Park where I spent many summer days swimming to my heart's content. The park was remodeled years ago and the city replaced the old "big, blue, pool" that I remember swimming in with this "Polar Bear" pool. This pool is about a foot deep and designed for small children, which I guess makes sense, but they now charge a fee to swim here and we could swim when we were kids in a bigger and deeper pool for free. :)

This other photo is of the new playground that also replaced the old one. Even though these pieces of the park replace the old ones, Seberger will always be my childhood playground, filled with tons of swimming days and many memories.

...I thought about the four block walk that we would make nearly every day of the summer as well as many times throughout the year; so we could have fun with our friends. I remember days of climbing this big tree at a corner house a block up from where our house was and hiding from people, or seeing if they would notice us as they walked past. Days of bike riding, rollerblading, McDonald's McFlurries, sun tanning in the front lawn with the boom box blaring the latest hits...To playing 500 with the neighbors in the street and taking late night walks around the neighborhood. As kids, there weren't many portable electronic devices that we would have. The only thing that I remember kids having were Walkmans or Discmans...The "coolest thing" that came out for electronics when we were kids were the Nintendo/Sega and Pagers. Our parents knew each other, so they knew where to find us kids and we knew that when the street lamps came on, it was time to get our booties home or it meant we were in trouble.

Days of "magic", make believe, pretend, and nothing but fun and laughter...I think as adults, we sometimes forget how to have fun and enjoy the simple things in life that we once found joy in as we grow up.

Thinking about this time in life caused me to wonder why I stress and worry so much about the daily things in life now as an adult? Maybe it's "second nature" once you are an adult, on your own and trying to figure out how to do it all? Not sure, but I took a moment to stop worrying about things that are really beyond my control, yet worrying about them would not change it, so why do it?

I find as an adult, I seek to find some of those pleasures I did as a kid. I love blanket forts, and will build them with any kid that I am watching or spending time with. I found I enjoy taking walks, looking at or talking about toys or things from my childhood years, being silly and coloring! Yep, I still color. : )

I was glad to be reminded of how simple life once was, and the joys that I found during that time before my life was consumed with all of the responsibilities of adulthood. I think that we all can enjoy some of those simplistic pleasures we shared as kids, but now we could share them with our children and our families. I mean, who doesn't love a good water balloon fight on a hot, humid, summer day? I know I do, no matter how old I am, I will get in there and chase the kids around like I was a kid again. : )

Jo Dee Messina has a new song out called "Like a Kid Again" that she wrote about seeing part of the world through her son's eyes and remembering how fun it was to be a kid...It's a great song and speaks of these very things I have written about.

As we journey through life as adults, please try to remember what it was like to be a kid, and enjoy that time in life with your children. : )

 

~Melissa