never forget what it's like to be a kid

I saw a mom dragging her kid through the mall on a leash today. I may have had a depressing childhood, but I think being on a leash tops some forms of physical abuse. It’s the epitome of parental laziness, and I don’t care how old you are, it’s still embarrassing and indicative of a “master-subject” relationship.

The look of absolute pain on this child’s face was enough to sear into my mind forever. Yeah, I know, I don’t have kids and don’t know how hard it is, but c’mon, it’s a LEASH.

“Youth cannot know how age thinks and feels. But old men are guilty if they forget what it is to be young…”

Albus Dumbledore
Order of the Phoenix, Chapter 37, Page 826

Everyday I just need to marvel at how awesome young kids are. Other than the typical kid greed, they’re remarkably uncorrupted, most enjoy grasping for any shred of new information that they can get their sticky hands on, they haven’t learned discrimination yet; for them, life is a remarkable new adventure.

While we can’t stay kids forever, there are so many lessons we can learn from children. I think there’s a better way to put it than that trite “Everything I Learned … in Kindergarten” crap. There’s so much to learn after childhood, but the key is to attempt to hold on to how we looked at the world before we all became imbued with jealousy, prejudice, and an understanding that the world wasn’t a wonderful place full of juice, cookies, and plastic toys.

Don’t forget.

Remember when the adults ruled over you, underestimated your intelligence, and talked as though you weren’t even in the room? When the arbitrary rules just seemed so unfair and the preferential treatment was unbearable and you had to wear shoes that were too tight and nobody believed you that they were tight until your toe poked through your white tights? When people skirted around certain topics and wouldn’t give you a straight answer and you got in trouble for things that you didn’t even know were wrong to do?

Well, I do. And I want to make sure that even though I’m an adult now and I will start to forget exactly what is like to be a kid, I treat them as intelligent human beings, answer their questions as best I can, and treat children with respect. While most kids don’t have to worry about things that adults do, it is incredibly frustrating to be a kid and not be completely in control of your own destiny, and I want to remember a little bit how that feels.