Thursday Thirteen - I Wanna Be Peter Pan

"I'll never grow up."

Okay, I realized after I titled this that is sounds like it is going to be a list of Halloween costumes or pictures. If that is what you were hoping to find, I'm sorry I misled you. What this is, however, is a list of the reasons I don't want to be a grown-up any more. Being that it is October 30th - I will start with an obvious reason...

1. On Halloween you can dress up and be whoever you want to be. People give you candy for no real reason and you can eat as much as you want without worrying about your weight.



2. You don't have to go to work- just school, once you're old enough, and even then there is Fall break, Christmas break, Spring break, and Summer break. (I could use a break!) There may be the added bonus of snow days which are the best bonus of all because there really isn't anything you can be doing besides staying home playing, reading, or watching TV.



3. You don't have to try to figure out when you are too sick to go to work - your Mom will decide if you should stay home from school to get well or to avoid spreading whatever you have to the rest of your class. Then she'll call and let them know - you don't have to do it between bouts of cold chills or while in a totally dark, silent room because you have a migraine. You don't have to worry that if you get sick too often they will give your desk to some other student.



4. You don't have to pay bills, just remember to take your lunch money or turn in your field trip form.



5. Which leads to field trips - you get to visit new places and learn new things, usually in some fun and interesting way.



6. You have very limited physical responsibilities - someone else is in charge of feeding you healthy food, making sure you get enough exercise, and that you get regular doctor, eye, and dental check-ups.



7. You have very limited household responsibilities - picking up your toys, making your bed, maybe carrying your dinner dished to the sink. Later there may be the added responsibility or doing the dishes (or loading the dishwasher), mowing the yard, or doing your own laundry but you share those with others and don't have to do their laundry.



8. You have limited social responsibilities - you are only expected to show up wherever your parents are willing to take you and if it gets late in the evening and you fall asleep in the middle of an event or get cranky because you're too tired no one wakes you up or is personally offended by your sleeping or your crankiness.



9. You have very limited societal responsibilities - you don't have to decide who would be the best person to be president and fairly govern the whole country, or even who should be on the school board. You don't have to file or pay taxes.



10. You typically are not expected to control things that are completely out of your control- things like the economy being in the toilet but your sales figures should remain steady, things like your spouse being mad at you because the two year old spilled fruit juice on the remote, the ten year old forgot to do what he was asked to, or the teenager dinged the car.



11. You can sometimes go an entire day and the only decisions you have to make are what you want to wear, if you want catsup on your fries, and which jigsaw puzzle you want to work or game you want to play.



12. You have all kinds of things to look forward to and you can still grow up to be anything you want to be and go anywhere you want to go. There are new, undiscovered things around every corner and you still have the time and energy to discover them.



13. You can still enjoy all the aspects of Christmas completely. You can be caught up in the wonder of Christ's birth without worry about those who don't know Him. You can still believe in the magic of Santa Claus and a bright shiny fun-filled Christmas morning provided by him, his elves, and his reindeer without the worry "hangover" of the credit card bills that will come in January or the depleted savings account.

Here's wishing you a few days each year when you can truly feel like a child again...