Letting Kids Be Kids

As I was packing and preparing to leave for California earlier this week, I found it necessary to make a run to the Mart of Darkness . I had a couple of items that I needed to get, so I expected a short and uneventful trip. Unfortunately, that’s not what happened.

I walked in, grabbed what I needed, and got in the express line, standing behind a father and son. The father was probably about my age and his son was probably about my oldest nephew’s age – ten. I glanced at their items and realized the dad was buying a couple of child-sized polo shirts; shorts; a kid’s toothbrush, toothpaste, and mouthwash; a small carton of chocolate milk, and sunglasses for both the father and son. None of that seemed particularly unusual, but the father’s behavior struck me as very odd.

The father kept making comments to the little boy about how expensive everything was and how he felt like he was spending too much money on him – when the sunglasses that the father was buying for himself appeared to cost more than pretty much everything else put together. (It almost seemed like the father had suddenly gotten totally unexpected custody of the child and had to buy things to get him to school the next morning.) I watched as the happy light faded out of this little boy’s eyes. You could tell that he was excited to be getting new things, including a cheap pair of sunglasses, but the father’s words and actions were really hurting this little boy. In just a few minutes, he went from happy and excited to very quiet and somber. It was just incredibly sad.

As the father and son left, the father did put his hand on the boy’s shoulder and seemed to say something to him that made him a little happier, but I doubt that little boy easily recovered his excitement. The father seemed to kill his happiness with just a few sharp and misguided words.

It just really makes you think – we’re all children at one point and, as an adult, I can’t even begin to guess how many times I have wished I could go back to my childhood. Since we all seem to want to go back to those easy days, at least at one point in our adult lives, shouldn’t we let kids be kids and be happy before they have to deal with real-world issues and problems? I think so. I’m not a mom, but I am an aunt. I also am the first to admit that there are times that I’ve snuffed out my oldest nephew’s excitement (my youngest isn’t old enough to care yet), but I’m resolving to never do that again. He’s just a kid – and he should get to stay that way as long as possible.