“Adults Are Ruining The World.”
By Brittney Pressley | Originally Published at LinkedIn September 25, 2014 | Children at play on Primrose Hill in acrylic, by Gudawer Kalirai.
Let’s face it, adult life is boring.
Paying bills (check)
Eating healthy to watch your aging figure (check)
Going to a job you don’t really care for (check) every…single…week (check)
Planning out weekends far in advance (check)
Saving money each pay period to have for when you decide to stop working (check)
Sure, there’s more that adults do but those things are likely boring as well. Adults are quite simply ruining the world! I know, you’re thinking of all the Scientists, Entrepreneurs, Activists, Mentors, and your Mom & Dad who are helping to make our physical world better. Hats off to them but the world I’m referring to is “the World of Authenticity” – the world in which we are all supposed to be ourselves.
Look at children for instance. They are quite simple! Give them some ice cream and they’re happy. Give them some attention and they’re happy. Play their favorite game with them and they’re happy. Making up stories in their heads with their imaginary friends and they’re happy. And when they are not happy they absolutely tell you about it. Something to the effect of, “I’m not your friend anymore”. As an adult you have to admit, it kinda stings when you hear those words even though you’ll be back to being “friends” after a hug and sliding over a cookie.
A few of the characteristics that I adore and admire in children is their honesty, truth, and attachment to doing the right thing. They are liberated from societal standards.
They are free from what others want them to be. They laugh a lot. They ask questions when they don’t understand – and even when they do, they wanna know “why?”, “but why?”. They are courageous. They are vulnerable. They are curious. They are eager to learn. They are…happy! But something shifts as they get older. We, boring adults, pressure them into seeing the world the way we see it “because we said so”. We suck the fun out of them, tell them to stop acting like a “child” and grow up, force 100 activities down their throats so they can learn structure, give them chores so they can learn responsibility, and shove books into their faces without encouraging them to use their imaginations to create their own stories. I’m all for structure and responsibility but I’m also for staying true.
I’m going to side step the ideals of parenting because that’s not the point here. The point is that children and free and we steal that from them after several birthdays.
Many adults live in a box: dress 'this way', act 'this way', speak 'this way', present themselves 'this way'.
It’s stressful trying to keep up with standards that you have not created for yourself. Setting expectations without context or communication happens daily in the adult world and of course the consensus is “you are just supposed to know”; “I thought it was common sense – I thought everyone knew that”, “Really you never knew that? How old are you again?”
I remember telling a friend a few years back that I loved going to arcades. Her response: “OMG you are such a big kid!” But aren’t we all? Isn’t there a child empathyeducates – “Adults Are Ruining The World.”:
