Posted by
Charlie Richards on Monday, February 11, 2008 3:02:25 PM
I'm not sure why my kids want to grow up.
They're 8, 6, 4 and almost two. The eight and six-year-old have no desire to work around the house. No desire for responsibility.
The four and two-year-old don't know squat, so I'll leave them out of this discussion.
The older two see me and Mom work around the house constantly. She's always cleaning, I'm always fixing something.
With four kids, there are always plenty of things to fix and clean.
So, of course, we want them to learn responsibility. To do that, we enlist their help. And you'd think someone shot them in the back. DOWN they go, in mental agony. "I can't. It's too hard. I want to play."
Yet, they can't wait to get older. Can't wait to grow up.
They look forward to every birthday - a step closer to adulthood.
They watch what we do, don't want to do it, but want to get where we are.
As a kid, I remember noting this paradox. Well, not using that word - even in my imagination. Regardless, I wanted to be older. But everybody older wanted to be younger.
So at a very young age - probalby around seven, I developed an answer to a question I would hear a thousand times before I hit 18: "What do you want to be when you get older?"
"Younger."