Kaye's Days

I once wrote a post about how I’ve never had a sleepover with friends and planned on doing that sometime in my twenties. But why do we need articles like this anyway?

I still enjoy plenty of things from my childhood. Bubbles, coloring, cartoons, an Etch-A-Sketch if I ever find one again. Why does growing up mean you have to give up what you love because you’ve reach that age, whatever it might be? I’m not saying I’d approve of a 50-year-old jumping into a ball pit at Chuck E. Cheese’s (although a private one is fine) nor am I saying that there’s anything wrong with outgrowing your childhood pleasures…but that’s just it. Outgrowing something is not the same as giving it up because you’re deemed too old for it. The former is a natural loss of interest while the latter is the result of a judgmental society.

Even in media, especially in children’s shows, growing up is represented as meaning you can never have fun again. I’ve met people who believe this. As an adult, you’re supposed to work almost all hours of the day and be ready to collapse from exhaustion, but have little time for rest because you have to take care of the housework and, if you have them, pets and/or kids. You’re supposed to moan about how hard being an adult is and tell kids how easy they have it and “wait until you become an adult”.

Screw that. First off, I think the suicide rate would be sky-high if that were reality. If it’s not “adults should never have fun”, it’s “adults should only enjoy adult things”. Porn, alcohol, sex, bars, strip clubs, etc. Instead of a sugar rush, you get intoxicated. Instead of Tom and Jerry, you watch Law and Order. While I have nothing against those things, why should they be the only ways for adults to have some fun? I’ll be more content sitting in the park under a shady tree with a juice pouch, thank you.

Adults do have responsibilities and taking care of them is what I feel should be associated with being “grown-up” and mature, not that someone’s childhood interests have carried over into their adulthood. Some may eventually fade or change while others may last a lifetime. Nothing is wrong with that.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to reorganize my Disney Princess DVDs.