Last week A and I had dinner with his colleague P, his wife D, and two children 8 and 6. It was a lovely evening of good company, lots of laughs (and average food, but we won't go into that).
As the school term was fast approaching I asked the boys if they were excited about heading back to school, to which they both proclaimed, "No, school is so boring!". Child 8 went on to say, "I can't wait until I'm an adult, life will be so much better!"
This got me thinking. As a child, all you want to be is to be older (amongst many other things) so that you can have more control over your life. You want to be able to make decisions for yourself, buy what you choose and go wherever you like. But seeing it from the other side, it's really not all it's cracked up to be.
I thought as I got older I would fear less. Surely the monsters in the cupboard can't get you if you're all grown up?!? But I have actually found it to be the opposite. Here are two lists to compare.
8 year old H feared:
- Monsters in the cupboard
- The dark
- Missing out on Home and Away
- Real monsters on the street
- The dark
- Missing out on Keeping Up with the Kardashians
- Burglars
- The telephone (don't even ask)
- Doing something wrong
- Missing out (on anything that I deem worthy - concerts/events/catch ups/holidays)
- Having a child
- Not having a child
- Being a bad parent
- Losing A (note - this list is in no particular order)
- Having no money
- Having a car crash
- Getting mugged/robbed/assaulted etc
- My dog getting stolen out of my backyard
- My dog running away
- Family members or friends getting sick
- Getting fired
- Making poor choices
- Having regrets
- Many many more things....
H x
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