"I don't wanna grow up, I'm a Toys-R-Us kid..."

"There's a million toys at Toys-R-Us that I can play with..." Or so the song goes. I would know - I used to sing that little jingle at the top of my lungs. And I meant every word of it. I was probably a bit strange for a child. I was very happy being a kid and had no desire to grow up. Grown-ups couldn't play all day - they had to go to work, and go food shopping, and do laundry. I just could not find the excitement in any of that. My friends couldn't wait for adulthood, but I just never shared in their grandiose dreams of fame and fortune (most of my friends were boys and they thought they were going to be baseball stars).

Unfortunately, despite my best efforts, I did eventually grow up. I learned all about responsibility. I found that having a job isn't all that bad, food shopping is actually fun when you can buy whatever you want, and laundry is one of the things I actually enjoy doing. =)

Circumstances have in some ways brought me full circle. Being unemployed, I don't have to work... and by offering to babysit for a friend, I had the opportunity to play like I did many years ago. I brought the boys (ages 7 and 11) to the playground, where we proceeded to climb up and slide down the outside of an enclosed slide, swung from the zip-line, hung upside-down from the pull-up bars, played basketball, and sprinted after one another for no reason at all (I in my high-heeled boots!). I had forgotten how great it is to be a kid. Oh, to be young again!