Childhood vs. Adulthood – Which is better?

Having the power to write your own rules is pretty awesome, but I gotta admit, adulthood sucks sometimes.

You have to engage in all sorts of mundane activities such as working, cleaning, and filing tax returns. Yuck!

As a kid, I longed for the freedom grownups enjoyed. But the amount of responsibility that accompanies adult independence never popped into my naive, underdeveloped brain.

A cursory look back at childhood reveals a carefree life where my most challenging task involved earning good grades in school. *Sigh* Those were the good old days.

Still, being an adult has its perks.

Although I believe we should constantly seek to improve our lives as well as those around us. I think its incredibly tempting to  get caught up in all the things we lack. We too easily lose sight of the small, intangible little pleasures we regularly encounter.

So as an adult who makes my own decisions, I want to revel in the liberties I enjoy now that I didn’t as a kid.

Designate my home as a pants-free zone. I don’t know what it is, but my hands involuntarily unsnap my bra and unbuckle my pants as soon as my feet cross the threshold.

Eat dessert before dinner. How many times have you stuffed yourself with so much nutritionally rich food that you didn’t leave enough room for dessert? It stinks, doesn’t it? Well, occasionally, I take my chances on not leaving enough room for veggies.

Watch television–ALL day. Netflix, Hulu, Amazon and the like make this glorious, “waste” of time more accessible than ever.

Grill indoors. Of course I’ve never fired up a grill inside my home. At some point during my younger years I learned that excessive smoke inhalation kills. But even if it didn’t, I don’t want my clothes, furniture, and carpet smelling like grilled flesh. It’s hard enough ridding your house of the smell of bacon and burnt popcorn.

Whip up a batch of cake mix and eat it uncooked–like pudding. I also decided this was a terrible idea. Cake tastes better, lasts longer, and doesn’t carry the risk of salmonella poisoning.

Eat an entire pack of bacon for breakfast. How does a single pound of bacon satiate a family of five? Impossible! My 6-year old niece can eat half a pound of the stuff alone.

Skip church. Or at minimum decide which church to attend. My family spent three loooong hours in church every Sunday morning. As we got older my mom made it more difficult for us to fall asleep.

Leave my bed unmade. Although I’m infinitely more pleased with myself when I do.

Refuse to eat chitterlings, i.e., smelly, disgusting pig intestines. I’m not sure why you’d force a child to eat this slop. It’s not even healthy!

Let my home be a wreck. I’ll clean it when I’m good and damn ready, thank you.

Shower in the morning. For some reason, my mother thinks bathing in the morning causes colds, or worse, pneumonia.

Curse. What can I say? I like to use swear words. They extend my vocabulary and emote feelings that can’t be communicated by a mere exclamation point.

I often reminisce about simpler days, when I didn’t have to worry about bills or heartache or which presidential candidate to vote for. But knowing what I know now, I still wouldn’t trade my life now to go back to childhood.

Do you think you were too eager to grow up?