I was walking out front this evening to check on the kids – my kids, neighbor kids, my kids friends, you get the idea – there were a lot of kids. Instead of shouting my standard “everyone okay? Nikki do you need to test?!”, I stopped to watch them. They had invented some elaborate game and were having a marvelous time – I wondered how long it had been since I felt that kind of freedom and joy in just being….well, right where I was. Diabetes, college, work, scheduled activities, raising kids, marriage, LIFE all has a way of depleting some of the awareness out of actually living. Now, I know that people have made up all sorts of “kid lists” before, but I wanted to ask these kids (kids who are part of my life) a question “what is so great about being a kid?” The group ranged in age from 4 years to 11 years so the answers were varied, but came at me like little bullets; they had no trouble telling me why being a kid is great. I was typing the list up for a project I’m working on, as well as this blog, and that's when it hit me – not one single answer had to do with material possessions, not one. Here is what they said:

Spinning and spinning and spinning and spinning

The Zoo

Tag

Rocks

Jump rope

Throwing Stuff

Pretending to sleep so you get carried into the house

The Last Day of School

Playing outside barefoot

The First Day of School

Chasing the ice cream man

Recess

Singing

Birthday Parties

Playing

Riding Bikes

Bubbles

Making Mommy Laugh

Hide-n-Seek

Candy

Friends

Christmas

Learning to Whistle

Cartwheels

Rain

Dad/Daddy

Cookies

Jumping

Running, no reason, just running

Sidewalk Chalk

Sleepovers

Staying up late when there’s no school

Summer

Christmas

Learning to Whistle

Mom/Mommy

Not being a grown up

Humm, I think Peter Pan knew what he was talking about.