To be a kid again….
I’m at the age where my friends are starting to get engaged. My sister, who is four years older is at a different stage. She has a kid and a lot of her close friends are starting their families. So, although I am not quite there yet, there are a bunch of kids/babies in my life. My sister and cousins all have kids that range from 8 months all the way to 8 years old.
Recently, my cousins from Australia came for a visit and brought their baby boy. We had big family gatherings where all the kids got to hang out together. Seeing all the babies interact and play with each other got me thinking. Being a kid is so great and so simple. You’re just learning how to talk and walk. People applaud when you finish your food or learn a new word. When you’re a baby, you can do no wrong. If you stare at a stranger or take someone else’s toy, its funny and cute. Your biggest worry is getting that balloon at a party or eating your food and drinking your milk.
For the past year and a half, I have watched my niece grow up. I was there when she just laid there and drooled and now she is walking and talking and causing all sorts of trouble. Its pretty amazing witnessing kids grow up. Their minds are sponges and they are able to absorb so much. Be careful what words you use around them, because they just start picking up words. They also just start mimicking behaviors as my niece would use your lovely to clean the floor because she sees my dad do it. They also start developing this personality and a sense of humor that you don’t expect. My niece is hysterical and knows how to “play” with you. She’ll pretend to go hug you and then change course to hug someone else, just despite you.
As I get older and realize how much responsibility I actually have and that I am actually an adult, it makes me wish for those simpler times. When I was little, my biggest worry was taking a quick bath so that me and my cousin Amy could sneak out to buy candy at the nearby liquor store. As you get older, the priorities start to change. In high school, it was about finding a date to the school dance or running for student council. College was more of the same, studying for a midterm or trying to sit through class with a hangover. Now its about paying bills, not only finding a job but a career and finding a person to share your life with. It’s about figuring about what the hell you are doing with your life and what decisions you have to make next. It used to be that your parents worried about that stuff for you and suddenly, you’re worried about being success enough to take care of you parents. I accept getting older and becoming an adult, but I really miss the simpler times. What I wouldn’t give to go back to kindergarden and have cookies and milk and nap time.
Having kids are great (although I am not quite ready). I think the hardest part about being a parent is having to go to work and miss out on so much of their kids’ lives.
Rachel Quach
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It is really easy to look back with nostalgia at Childhood. If only I could become a child again, without a “care” with someone else to protect me. Children are rather helpless and dependent on someone else to fulfill their needs. When they can’t speak, its really difficult for them to say what they need and have it understood. To be a child is to be powerless, at the mercy of someone else’s whims. No, today Mommy is too tired to feed you or baby has been so bad that I’ll spank her hard. I don’tr care how hard youy cry, just cry, it’s good for you. It really is not that much fun being a child. It is more fun to have “child-like” wonder about something (a new iPhone, iPod, or Wii. That’s much easier to achieve..
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Kids do have a really good time. They are well looked after (in general unless they have the misfortune of either having bad parent(s) or to be wards of the state. I do wish I could return to being a child, but I know that is impossible because I am now an adult and have a different perspective on almost everything (including food).
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