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Obsession with childhood
Why do people want to go back to a time when their comprehension of the world was severely limited and they could not do, let alone understand the things they can with age?
Comments
Is this specifically about wanting to be a child or simply feeling nostalgic about things you enjoyed as a kid?
Imagine being a kid, but with all the knowledge you have now
A lot more tact, acing tests left and right, having a ton of free time due to finishing homework easily...
At least that's the allure for me
You know what they say about ignorance and bliss...
When I was a kid I actually enjoyed doing things, so there's that.
That said, I don't want to be a kid again. Mostly because I know I can't, so there's no point wishing I could.
I don't want to be a kid again. Mostly because I would imagine that doesn't come with the (relative) intelligence that I possess at the moment, and I was a stupid little gremlin. I don't want to be a stupid little gremlin again.
"Is this specifically about wanting to be a child or simply feeling nostalgic about things you enjoyed as a kid?"
Either. The latter is somewhat a consequence of the former, if not consciously.
^To say that feeling nostalgic about your childhood means that you unconsciously want to be a child again is a pretty presumptuous conclusion, I think.
Eh, it's partly because I often feel that stuff for children is on a different mental level than stuff for adults. Unless it's cleverly written enough.
I certainly wish I could turn back the clock and do things differently.
^^Well, that's a different kind of idiocy, albeit worse since people should know better.
Or Jack & Jill. Or anything made by Seltzer and Friedberg. Or any number of godawful sex comedies.
Because peeps can't bear responsibility for the self
Yeah, but those are made with awareness that older people are watching. Though I will concede Toy Story.
Actually, I guess I really meant wanting the experiences of being a child again.
Oh, that.
Because the experiences of an adult get drowned in cynical bullshit too much.
^^Wait, why wouldn't a kids' show be made with the awareness that older people are watching? With unfortunate exceptions kids have parents, especially in Toy Story's case where a parent would have to buy a movie ticket.
I'm not saying there aren't dumb kids shows, because lord believe me I watched some pretty bad shit as a child. However, I can point to numerous terrible and exceedingly stupid tv shows and movies pointed to adults. There's a reason the term lowest common denominator exists.
As for why people want the experience of being a child, welp, can't speak for everyone but it would sure be nice to be at an age where I have my mother alive and my father healthy.
Abyss_Worm,
I am not sure if this is really ironic or just fitting, but feel like a lot of children actually want and/or try to grow up fast (e.g., date, drink, drive, be independent), even though there are plenty of adults who have nostalgia for what life was like when they were kids.
I agree with the whole ignorance is bliss and not wanting to have a bunch of responsibilities explanations for that second phenomenon though.
"I am not sure if this is really ironic or just fitting, but feel like a lot of children actually want to grow up fast (e.g., date, drink, drive, be independent), even though there are plenty of adults who have nostalgia for what life was like when they were kids."
Humans are strange that way. It is rather cyclical. We think life is so much better in another time or place. Shit happens, though, and the best we can do is learn from it.
I will admit that personal biases very much influence this thread, as I hated my past self.
Everybody hates their past self. But nobody wants to go back to being their past self. Most people simply long for simpler times where you don't have to deal with the pressures of being an adult.
I dunno. There are plenty of people who harp on about how they used to be so awesome when they were younger, before they did X and ruined their lives forever.
Tangent, but I think part of the reason a lot of stories like to focus on childhood and adolescence is that those are very dynamic points in a person's life. Easy to write change and development in.
Should have said, "Everybody wants to go to being their past self"
normally in order to somehow improve their lives and redo things
Yeah, I'd very much want a mulligan of elementary school. Lot of shit happened there that I spent most of my life since cleaning up and feeling gypped on having a childhood.
I want a mulligan of college.
What a downer thread.
On that note, I'd mulligan up pretty much everything. Boo hoo and whatnot.
I'd be content with kicking the ever living crap out of past!Me and telling him to make some more damn friends and get out more.
I used to want to go back to being a kid, but I think I'm past that phase. There are things I like about myself now that weren't applicable when I was younger. My worldview and things like that.
However that doesn't mean I'm not nostalgic for places and things from my childhood.
Should kick past me of two years ago for not enjoying student life to the fullest. Past me should kick current me for being too cynical.
The sad thing of wanting to repair my childhood mistakes is that I would not know my best friend if I hadn't been a jackass in elementary.
Semi thread hop, explaining a possible take on the subject in fairly generic terms, "you" is not to be taken to mean any of you exactly : When you were a kid you could run around and act stupid, use your imagination as much as possible, climb trees and go exploring...and all of it was perfectly natural. Nobody expected much more from you, and none of those things were frowned upon. As you grow older, you are expected to not do these things, and to take on a bunch of other responsibilities, because that's what adults do.
Someone with an apparent obsession of childhood might very well be building their lives around the rejection of all this. I mainly think of Frances when I say this, she's 25 and yet firmly believes this is no reason not to climb trees, go on minor adventures, pretend to be someone outside the context of formal acting, etc. (Also, the sex factor: gender relations were often quite a bit simpler before puberty, simple as that. For an asexual like her, the change perhaps stands out even more because she didn't really experience it like most people.)
So really, I have nothing to say about this the way the OP approached it. But I hope my take (or Frances', I guess) was somewhat useful.