Growing Up Too Fast

It's great fun to see the blessings of extended family, especially when it takes the form of young cousins playing with each other. We were paid a visit from my brother, sister-in-law and two nieces recently, and I watched my three year old daughter Sophia playing with my almost three-year old niece Audrey in the basement.

Sophia, being the older kid, was clearly the "ringleader" and she had gotten my niece to wear one of Daniel's old backpacks, the contents of which were a plush block, a couple of plastic fruits, and a handful of wooden trinkets. After a few silent minutes of watching and listening, it was clear what they were playing... or at least Sophia was playing.

"Hurry, hurry, catch the bus!" Sophia ordered Audrey, coaxing her across the basement to a small futon.

They did a couple of rounds of this, and Audrey was generally a good sport around running to the futon with a backpack full of toys, though on occasion Audrey would instead sit down, unzip the backpack and dump the contents of the backpack on the floor, at which point a frustrated Sophia would prod her to pack up and playfully scold her that she was going to miss the bus and be late for school.

It's obvious that Sophia picked this up from my wife and her constant battles getting my son in his "getting ready for school routine". What's interesting is that she finds this activity worthy of playtime and imagination. Alternatively, my wife has found this routine so frustrating at times that she'd probably rather eat glass, particularly on days where my son goes into irrationally-difficult-and-willful mode which causes him to lie prostrate on the floor wailing about something or another with his jacket only half-on, while the school bus can be heard pulling up to the street corner.

I can appreciate that playing "grown up" is a favorite pastime of kids. I do think it's funny that sometimes the episodes of adult life that they choose are utterly unenjoyable and unpleasant. I get playing "grown up" if it means driving, shopping or going on a trip to a resort. But getting your kid ready for school is a scenario with just as much appeal as "doing your taxes" or "unclogging the toilet".

If this is what they think adulthood is like, I'm not sure they'd be that excited to get there.