Young at Heart
Posted by Erin Gilbert in September 29th 2008
This is a guest post by Meredith Coppolino who works here at Graco in our Channel Marketing Department…
Why can’t we start out old and grow young?
Recently I purchased a new camera and started snapping pictures around where I live and I started thinking about being young again.
Now I don’t have children yet, but I do live in a neighborhood with many of them and I’m married to a man who is 34 going on 8. Let’s just say, because of these reasons, you can call me an expert on the young at heart! Watching the neighborhood kids play in the cul-de-sac or hearing their screams early on a Saturday morning (when I’m still in bed after a night of fun), I think about the carefree days of my own life.
It was so much fun running around the neighborhood playing with my friends, playing baseball, tag, soccer, capture the flag- not a care in the world. At those moments we never thought about what we wanted to do with our lives, where our career would land us (for that matter, what we even wanted to do as a career), who we would we choose to lead the country - all we cared about was, “What time are were playing again tomorrow?”
When I do have children, I know my husband and I will teach them to live it up! Laugh everyday and better yet laugh at yourself. Keep close the memories of playing with friends in the neighborhood. Remember the days of life without cell phones, deadlines, presentations or final papers. Remember the days of bunny ears behind your friend’s heads.
Knowing what we know now if we could go back, would you do anything differently? Let your kids play with their friends a few more minutes tonight!! (I wish I could).
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I don’t know…I believe that everything that happens in our lives shapes who we are. Our memories define us and I’m not sure I’d mess with it.
That being said, I do wish that we had gone more places as a kid. Not anywhere expensive necessarily, just taken trips together as a family.
As I sit here plugged into the computer not to find a fun craft idea or Halloween costume online with my daughter, but to work from home while I’m “off on a personal day” I long not only for my own stress free childhood memories but more time in the day to make new memories with my little girl.
So many of us say “you don’t have kids, you don’t understand.” But often it’s someone without kids who can look in on our worlds with an objective perspective and see just how beautiful they are and how the simple pleasures of laughing with our little ones can bring such joy to our lives and theirs.
Days without cell phones? Laptops? Yes please! No meetings, deadlines? It must be Christmas! Thanks for this much needed reminder that the grind, and all the stress that goes with it, will always be there, but the silliness of an almost 8 year old who still loves to hold her mama’s hand won’t last forever.
Great Job Mere - makes me wish I was outside playing a game of Kick the Can (while drinking a few cans) enjoying the weather rather than sitting in my office behind a computer.
What a fun and inspirational post! With all the anxiety in the news lately about financial problems, reflecting on the games we played as kids is a breath of fresh air. You and your future family will have loads of fun together if that’s your vision for your lives.
Wow, Mere, that’s a fantastic photo! I’m going to try to start up a Capture the Flag game this weekend around my neighborhood in DC. And please wish Jeff a happy 8th birthday!
What is it about giving someone bunny ears in a photo? We often worry they’ll ruin it, but never consider that they can make the photo great! Thanks for the reminder of how fun and silliness is such an important part of life (and not just during childhood, either!).
WOW did you put me back into the childhood years. I am missing being a kid after that post! It is great to hear these kids laughing at night and yes on Saturday mornings… It is even better that Jeff is always will to pick up a glove or bat and join right in the game….