Ode to Childhood

 
There are some days when I miss my youth.  I miss the silly antics, the innocence and the pure fun of it all.  I also miss getting away with certain behaviors that just don’t fly now that I’m an adult… So here’ s my list of things that I either miss from childhood and some things that I wish were still acceptable.

1.  Being Fat.  Every body loves a chubby baby or little kid.  At what age does fat go from being adorable to flat out condemnable? When does your cute, little pooch suddenly become muffin top?  When do chubby cheeks become jowls? At one time my extra chub was charming (or so my mom told me), now it’s just loathsome.  How I long for the days when chub was cherished!

2.  Playing With Barbies.  As a child, I spent countless hours playing with my twenty-plus Barbies and one Allan* doll. Clearly my Barbies were subjected to brothel-like living conditions.  Nevertheless, it was so much fun creating drama for the gals, having them go on trips, and getting them gussied up for parties.  Life in the Barbie Dream House seemed, well dreamy!  Playing make believe with those dolls and conjuring up convoluted story lines fed my creative instinct in a way that no other game or toy did.  Now a days there's so much over analysis about Barbie’s lady bits, what she means to feminism, etc. etc.  It totally sucks the pleasure out of Barbies and it seems like no one is playing with them anymore.  It’s really a shame.  I don't really want to play with Barbies anymore, but I do feel nostalgic for those make-believe, escape from reality type of outlets.  I guess I’ll just have to settle for watching trash TV…

3.  Hula Hooping. I love hula hooping.  Always have. As a child I devoted countless hours to hula hooping in my driveway with my mom's hula-hoop from the 60s (as I write this, I realize it's shocking that I had any friends).  It was so much fun.  Giggle yourself silly sort of fun.  Wild abandon fun.  It was such a challenge to see how long I could keep it going without it falling to the ground. I was quite adept at spinning it around my knees for several rotations.  Anyway, I wish it wouldn't be totally weird for a 31 year-old mother of two to go outside on a sunny day and hula-hoop in her driveway.  Weird neighbor award???  That one would belong to me!

4.  Twice A Day Naps. Since becoming a parent I've become obsessed with my childrens’ nap schedules.  I read about sleep habits, analyze nap routines, labor over sleep begetting sleep, and all the while, my sons don’t want to nap.  They hate it.  But it's been hammered into our collective heads that two naps a day are extremely important to the development of little kids and quite frankly, they just don't appreciate it.  They have no idea how glorious these scheduled times for shut-eye actually are.  I know I didn't realize it as a child.  And to be honest, I'm not so sure children actually need it. Myself on the other hand, I NEED A NAP! And two-a-day would be stupendous.  Naps are lost on the young.  It's us oldies that need the extra shut-eye.  Nap rooms in the office?  Now that's what I'm talking about.

*Allan was Ken’s friend in the 60’s.


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What sorts of things do you miss from childhood???