On being a kid

What I miss about being a kid:

• Not having to lug around 800 keys in my purse. I have keys to office buildings, cars, multiple houses, fire-safe boxes, etc. Those tiny things weigh a ton when there are 400 of them.
• I miss not being tied to a phone all day long. Sometimes I just don't answer the phone when it rings and I feel so guilty. As a kid I had a pager (I felt so cool) but I could take my time calling back whoever was paging me, usually my mother. Now people know they can reach me at all times, no matter where I am.
• Sleeping in every single weekend. Boy howdy, I miss sleeping in till 11 AM then padding to the kitchen for a bowl of cereal then lazing around on the sofa for hours watching MTV music videos.
• I miss music videos on MTV that were actually good music videos and not just all tricked out and made on computers.
• I miss not worrying about world peace and animal factory farming practices and children that are starving. I knew about most of these things like all kids but those problems were so beyond my realm of understanding that I often just put them in the back of my mind.  
• I sure did take for granted that food would always be in the fridge, I'd always have clean clothes to wear and that the utilities always were taken care of without me having to write a single check.
• Not having to balance a checkbook. Or pay a credit card bill on time to avoid being charged a billion dollars in late fees which also results in poor credit which means that I can only apply for a credit card at The Dollar Store.
• Not stressing about if I save enough for retirement.
• Wondering if what I have saved for retirement will recover from the market crash and if I should stick my money under my mattress or bury it in my backyard instead (do not look there, you will not find it!).

What I don't miss about being a kid:

• Oh the insecurities of being a kid. I have them still, but on a much, much smaller scale.
• The feeling of the having no freedom. I am free to make my own choices and go where ever I want to go without checking in.
• I don't miss having no money. Not that I'm loaded now but I get a few bucks here and there to spend however I want on whatever I want. That's pretty sweet.
• I don't miss the way I felt like I couldn't make a difference and that I was just too insignificant.
• The lack of style I had a kid. I was all over the map trying to find myself. I still often reinvent myself but it's because I want to not because the coolest girl in school just crimped her hair and now I have to also to keep up.
• Not knowing as much as I do now. Oh sure, I thought I knew it all and everyone else (the adults) knew nothing but it turns out you do know more as an adult.
• The thing I don't miss about being a kid the most is that I now get to determine 100% of my own happiness and I own it all. Even though I had the same power as a kid I didn't utilize it.

What do you miss about being a kid the most? What do you not miss about being a kid the most?

Comments

[Jess]

I don't really miss being a kid, at all. I do miss certain things about being in college, like having all my friends RIGHT THERE within a five-minute walk. But mostly I love being an adult. Which is lucky because I'm pretty sure that's not going to change anytime soon.

[TUWABVB]

I agree with every sentiment above - I hate the responsibilities that come with being an adult, but even more? I hate that I feel like I'm an impostor - that I'm not really an adult and I'm going to get exposed some day that I don't really know what I'm doing.