“Stop running!”
“Get out of the water!”
“Stop climbing on that!”
Sound familiar?
If you are anything like me, even with my best intentions to make sure my son hears plenty of “Yes’s,” he still get his shares of “no’s” and “stop that.” Probably more than I would like to admit.
Yesterday we arrived at Disney World…the happiest place on earth! This is the first time for my son, who is five, and it’s the first time I have been here in over 30 years!
All I have to say is…Disney World rocks!
We came into the park yesterday and spent the day at Animal Kingdom with the Magic Kingdom on the agenda for today. We took safaris, we rode roller coasters and we played in the dinosaur pits.
We are up here with some friends and their almost five-year-old son. The boys are having a blast. So are we.
We went on the biggest roller coaster at Animal Kingdom. A towering ride called The Legend of Forbidden Mountain. I know, sounds menacing, right!
The height limit is 44 inches. My son Brennan is 43 ½ inches, so we put a big hat on him and told him to straighten his spine and think tall…and if that didn’t work we showed him how to walk on his tippy toes.
Is that bad?
Well, he absolutely loved it. We raced up hills, backwards through dark caves, near vertical drops and winding turns. Dad hand his hands in the air the whole time and Brennan could stop smiling.
The must have gotten roller coaster juice because they were totally hopped up on natural adrenaline after that. They ran around all over the park – weaving in and out of people, climbing onto rock outcroppings, banging on bongo drums, laughing and screaming the whole time.
Yes, we were THAT family!
And you know what…I didn’t care.
The kids seemed to build up energy as the day went on. They didn’t tire out. They didn’t complain. They were completely engaged in their experience…focused on one thing and one thing only…
HAVING THE BEST POSSIBLE TIME AT EACH AND EVERY MOMENT.
How brilliant is that?
We have our entire lives to be adult. There is plenty of time for discretion, political correctness, being appropriate, caring about what everyone thinks, following all the rules, playing it safe, saying no, planning everything out, taking it slow, thinking before acting, using your best judgment, worrying about getting hurt, self-limitation and doing the ‘right’ thing.
Our childhood is over in a blink.
In our attempt to shape our kids into responsible adults, do we sometimes rob them of the brilliance of what it means to be a child?
This pre-adolescent time is so short. Once teenage years hit, kids start trying to be adults. They can’t wait to grow up. As they get to our age, we start trying to remember how to reconnect with our childlike wonder, imagination and unadulterated sense of freedom.
Why don’t we just allow them such an incredible childhood experience that they will never, ever, ever…ever, ever, ever…ever, ever, ever…ever, ever, ever forget.
If you are up to it…take today and go be a kid with your kid.
What is the last thing you did with your child that allowed for their full self-expression? I’d love to hear your stories.
