Don't Grow Up - It's a Trap

Josh and I on our sweet rides

Do you remember when you first learned how to ride a bike?  How long did it take for you to lose the training wheels?  Odds are that one of your parents, siblings or friends took the time and patience to teach you.  Someone took the time to watch you try and try and would help you every time you would wipe out.

For me it was my mom, or at least I was told, and she said it didn't take me to long to ditch the training wheels and feel the freedom that is riding a bike.  She shared memories with me tonight about time I would ride downtown to get something from Larry's Groceries and take a detour or two along the way home.  She said I loved learning how to ride because it opened me to so many other things outside of my own front yard.   

So many things, like learning to ride a bike, is part of a "typical" childhood.  Our childhood is spent mostly having fun and learning.  From writing, drawing, swinging from the monkey bars, and playing tag - we took it all in and opened our minds to be filled with so many things.  But many times in our lives we get caught up in our "adulthood" and forget what it is like to be a kid again.

One of my favorite parts of coming back home is going to school with my parents and working in my mom's classroom.  Both of my parents are Elementary teachers - my dad retired a few years back but still fills in as a substatuite teacher from time to time and my mom has a room filled daily with third graders.  Tonight I went to my old elementary school to help in my mom's room for the annual holiday music concert.  Every year since I was a small kindergrartner and many years even before then, our school's music teacher, Ms. Burnside, would put on the most wonderful concerts.  The gym would always be packed with family and friends as they watch rows of children sing their hearts out on a stage surrounded by bright decorations and framed by black curtains.


Tonight's concert was no different.  I watched my mom's third graders sing about going to grandma's house with jingle bells on their little wrists and stomped their feet as they asked Santa for no more slippers for Christmas.  Afterwards back in their classroom I was quickly asked what I thought of the performance.  I told them they all did wonderful and was answered by toothy grins and some not so toothy grins.  They talked with my mom about who they all saw in the crowd from their families - moms, dads, grandparents, neighbors - they noticed them all from up on the stage.  Then they all started listening to a story about Clifford the Big Red Dog as I continued to work with some of them one on one to finish their stocking project.  After the story, they played a quick game of 7-Up - remember the game where you put your head on your desk as a few selected others would run around and put your thumb down.  Some them of gently push your thumb as they giggled and then others would give it a quick slam and run away.  Then you would raise your head and try to guess who had pushed on your thumb.

It seems so odd to think that it truly comes down to the simple things - listening to a story, playing a simple game, and sharing who supports you.  As adults we make these things seem so unimportant, but to kids they are at the top of the list.  Kids are so eager to learn, to try, and to share, where as us as adults we tend to be guarded, stubborn, and unwilling to change.  When did we forget to be kids?

As I finished up my time with the students tonight I was also reminded that some children don't get that "normal" childhood.  Not every child has someone to teach them how to ride a bike or to come to their holiday concert and that will bring me to tears almost every time.  But then you see one of their school friends step up and tell them they did a great job and that their slippers are really cool, and all seems good again.  Not every childhood is a great one or a perfect one, and sometimes it doesn't seem fair.  But as I told many times growing up - life isn't always fair.  They will be hard times, good times, times when you want to give up, and times when all you want is your mom.  And that never changes no matter how old you are.


So don't forget to have some fun today, to learn something new, and most of all love your life, no matter if it doesn't always seem fair.  And when you get the chance, make the time and have the patience be there for a little one in your life and to teach them something - trust me they will truly appreciate every moment of it.  And most of all, remember to never lose your inner child and to let her enjoy the wind in her hair ever once in awhile.