My wife recently showed me a video in which a little girl cries because she doesn't want her baby brother to grow up. It might be the sweetest thing that I've ever seen, but it also got me thinking.Toys R Us is a kid's paradise. I remember being so excited when I'd get to go to Toys R Us that I could hardly stand it. All those toys and bikes and games and junk-that-no-one-really-needs is like nectar to little kids. They buzz here to look at one toy, and then over there to look at another, and across the aisle to look at another. It's so wonderful it's like...well, it's like a kid in a toy store!So you'd think I'd get excited when a Toys R Us commercial like this came on TV.Well, you'd be wrong.There was no sadder song to a young Brett than that Toys R Us song. "I don't want to grow up/ I'm a Toys R Us kid" followed by, "I don't want to grow up/ 'Cause if I did, I couldn't be a Toys R Us kid."I liked being a kid. I had awesome toys, tons of fun, and I loved my family. When you're a kid, the thought of losing those things can be overwhelming.Why would I want to grow up and get married and get my own house and have to leave my toys and my parents? No thank you!In May 1983 one of my older cousins got married. I had just turned five years old. We went to the wedding and I sat there--impatiently, probably--and watched the ceremony. And at the end, he of course kissed the bride, and the only thing I really remember about that day was thinking, "Gross, who the heck wants to kiss some girl?"And for years after that I worried that some day I'd have to kiss some girl in front of a whole bunch of people.My kids have similar worries. The other night as I was tucking my sons into bed, my older son--he's nine--looked like he was going to cry. I asked him what was wrong and he started to break down and said, "I don't want to get any older. I'm the perfect age. I want to stay like this."I instantly thought back to that Toys R Us song.A year or two ago my seventeen-year-old daughter--a rabid Taylor Swift fan--repeatedly played a song called Never Grow Up. "Oh darling don't you ever grow up/ Just stay this little/ Oh darling, Don't you ever grow up/ Don't you ever grow up/ It could stay this simple." At the time my youngest daughter wasn't quite two years old. Whenever my youngest son, who's four years older than my youngest daughter, heard the song, he'd begin crying."The words are so sad," I remember him saying one time. "And I know she's going to grow up."Little Brett, and the little girl in the video, and my kids all figured out the same thing: childhood is special. Everyone used to be a child, and whether we remember it or not, everyone probably also wished they could always remain a child.Unfortunately, this isn't Neverland, so we have to grow up.Adults frequently wish that they could regain their childhood, but that's best left to the children, because a funny thing happens as we get older. We begin to change, and suddenly kissing some girl doesn't seem like such a bad idea, and eventually getting a place of our own sounds pretty good. Even Toys R Us loses its appeal.And if we're lucky, an even more amazing thing happens. We get to see our children enjoying their childhood.Today a friend of mine told me that he smiles every time he watches his sons play with their toys because he knows they're using their imagination and they've created a little world of their own. Sometimes when I look at my own kids I get choked up just thinking about how much they enjoy each moment, how much they're developing, how much fun they have.So after all those fears of growing older and not being a kid anymore, it turns out that the only thing better than experiencing my own childhood is watching my kids experience their childhood.And that's the good of growing up.Type your email address in the box and click the "create subscription" button. My list is completely spam free, and you can opt out at any time.
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