I'm 30 now. Who am I kidding, I'm in my mid-30's. No complaints, but it's sure obvious that time is slipping by quickly. I don't long to be older... but I used to. I remember being in 1st grade and thinking how big 6th graders were and so on... and being sure I was never going to get there.My kids are a lot like that now. They want to be older and anything that makes them look or seem older - they will wear it, say it, or do it. To be a teenager is the coolest thing to them, and they are positive they will never get as old as their dad is now. Looking at the world this way (that is, wanting to be older so bad), their perspective is quite skewed from that of an adult.
I saw this phenomenon just this week as my boy lost his first tooth. He was overjoyed because it represented growing older to him. A lot of kids that are just a year or two older than him have several teeth missing... and they are very cool. It is not normal for an adult to have the same reaction to one of their teeth falling out. For one thing we don't get any second chances with these teeth, do we? I guess this is one of several reasons why a kid grinning for a camera with several teeth out is much cuter than an adult with the same smile.
It reminded me of something I thought was pretty classic. A while back when my kids were ages 7 & 4, they were both really into the Dixie Chicks' version of the Fleetwood Mac tune "Landslide". I tried to get them into the Smashing Pumpkins version, but to no avail. Anyways, when they'd get to what I've always felt to be one of the heavier and downright sad parts of the song, their voices would swell with hope for the future as they sang, "Time makes you older/ even children get older/ & I'm getting older, too!"
I had never once looked at it that way, & they couldn't imagine it otherwise.
