It’s funny in life. When we are children, we look forward to the day when we will be able to make our own decisions without any help from our parents. When we come to terms with the fact that adulthood isn’t what it seems, we long for the times when we were younger and had to choose between Taco Bell and Arby’s.
Being a grownup comes with a cost, and it’s not always inexpensive. For the majority of us, the stress of our jobs, monthly payments, and major expenses like college or home ownership are all commonplace. All of these are a little more difficult than choosing between a Taco Supreme and a Gordita Crunch.
Is everything bad? Obviously not. We can now make our own decisions and choose a route that is specific to our goals in life since we are no longer constrained by our parents. We must overcome a unique set of obstacles when we are untethered, but that is a necessary part of maturing and living independently.
Forgetting that we were kids is one of the biggest problems we face as adults. We get burdened by our lives, lose our capacity for imagination, and lose the ability to dream. All of this makes sense, of course; we have obligations and must put them first. While this is true, it’s also true that we can continue to prioritize without losing our innocence.
My daughter and I perform a puppet show with her toy animals every morning. Depending on my degree of grogginess, I have distinct voices, characters, and backstories for each of them. I’ve been waking her up with this morning routine for years. The entire process takes five to ten minutes, and it usually ends with happy faces and a positive mood to start the day.
Children will affect you in this way. For short periods of time, they enable us to relive our childhood. We can act goofy, let our imagination run wild, and awaken parts of our younger selves that have lain dormant for years or even decades. This is particularly true when they are preteens and only have a small group of family and friends in their life.
I don’t want this to be misinterpreted. Purchasing a Tony Hawk skateboard from eBay and riding around the neighborhood while wearing your Motley Crue t-shirt is not something I’m recommending. Even though your children may find that embarrassing, let’s avoid the possibility of a broken ankle and remain grounded for the time being.
You can recall what life was like when you had your entire life ahead of you without having children or being near them. All too frequently, the adult side of our brain believes that we are no longer capable of having great dreams, thinking large, or considering what might be instead of what has actually happened. Somewhere in there is your younger self. The innocence we all once had is buried deep behind the difficulties, regrets, and sorrows.
This is more noticeable around the holidays than at any other time of year. Holiday cuisine, gift-giving, and family get-togethers instantly take us back to our early years. We briefly recall the lives we had before the complexities of maturity and the loved ones we have lost.
More than anything else, traditions are time gifts from our past that enable us to relive happy moments and cherished memories by bringing them to life.
If only there was a Christmas album by Motley Crue. That would make for a rather memorable custom.
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