Adult for too long

Don't grow up!

Do you know that you are called an adult for more time in your life than any other name – well, other than your own name of course.

You are a child for about 11 years, adolescent for 8 years, elderly for about 10 years (or longer if you are lucky enough) and an adult all the time in between.

That label 'adult' comes with so much responsibility and expectation. When you are an adult, you get a full-time job. When you are an adult, you buy assets, so you are tied down for half your adult life to the asset you work every day to pay off. When you are an adult, you must not act like a child. When you are an adult, you are expected to 'know better'.

Man! What a boring and restrictive label. I wish I knew that when I was a child. When doing cartwheels down a hill was expected. When eating hot chips, chiko rolls and scallops would not ‘go to my hips’ or create cholesterol issues. When you bobbed for apples at parties and spent much of your day doing fun stuff like painting, roller skating, riding bikes and going to the park to play.

I can't do that as an adult. I'll be frowned upon and my mother’s upbringing questioned with other women frowning at my mum and saying "must have been poor parenting that let that 34-year-old woman think it is ok to roll down the grass hill like a barrel'.

To keep us adults young and interesting we should have ‘child days’ – like once a month, where we get to have a day off work and do stuff children do. Set up Homebush Bay Park with a Big Kids Zone. Tunnel ball, high jump, long jump, jumping castles, totem tennis and egg on a spoon race. Maybe even some old school computer games - like Frogger, Kings Quest, Comet – or those found on your old Atari!

Wishful thinking I know, but change starts somewhere!

Time to go and do a handstand against a wall...Ouch! ok, maybe I should start with something a little simpler!