Kids CAN Be Kids

My parents wanted to have one last party before the warm weather left us and summer was completely out of site. This meant inviting a lot of our family friends over, which also included telling everyone to bring a covered dish, renting a bouncy house, setting up a volley ball net, and making room for a bunch of lawn chairs in our yard. Most of the families go to our church and most of them have big families. This makes things very fun and exciting.

We live in an average house on about 2.5 acres, in a neighborhood, in the country. It’s the same house I learned to tie my shoes in, the same house where I woke up every exciting Christmas morning, the same house where I would sneak out on my parents roof and watch the stars and the same house where countless adventures took place in my backyard. Basically, I loved growing up there and I’m pretty certain my parents will never move out of that house. Now, before smart phones, iPads and iPods…even before the internet became a big hit... there were just CD players and Tamagotchi’s. There was Arthur on PBS. There was Rug Rats on Nickelodeon. There were adventurous snow days. There were tree houses and forts. There were adventures in the woods behind your house. There were ultimate neighborhood wide games of capture the flag. There was make believe house where you spent countless hours playing babies or polly pockets. And of course, there were those times where you had to jump from couch to couch to avoid the “lava” on the ground. I think I’ve made my point here. I think everyone in my generation or previous generations can recall those special childhood memories and might even label some of them as the best times of their lives. Unfortunately, I think we can all look at the generation of kids now and see there is a drastic difference in the way kids play, imagine and even socialize.

BUT, this past week, I witnessed something beautiful, nostalgic and just plain fun.

I witnessed kids being... KIDS.

They weren’t plopped on the couch gathered around an iPad. They weren’t all gazing up at a movie on the television screen and they definitely were not moping around complaining to their parents that there was nothing to do.

No.

Instead, they were playing.

I saw them running and smiling. I saw their blue stained lips from drinking Koolaid with the twist off caps, I saw their imaginations running wild, I saw boys with toy swords and Nerf guns, I saw girls playing make believe in the club house. And all of them had me line them up to count them into teams for capture the flag...yes, capture the flag.

I loved it. So did they.

Cheers to Kids being Kids

#relationships #spiritual #single