I took my girls to see the new movie, IF (Imaginary Friends), last week and let me tell you it shook me to my core. It was definitely one of those movies that catches you off guard as an adult.
I planned this whole day, thinking me and the girls would have a fun, lighthearted day together- eating some good food, watching a movie and getting some ice cream afterwards, but I left that movie theatre a blubbering mess, so much so that we had to reschedule the ice cream date because I couldn’t pull myself together.
Don’t get me wrong, the movie was great, and the girls absolutely loved it, but it snuck some concepts in there that only adults would understand.
The movie was obviously centered around imaginary friends. In short, these friends had entered a retirement home because their kids had grown up and forgotten them. So sad, right? It was fun for the girls to see all the different and unique types of friends that these kids conjured up in their imagination and it also brought back memories of my imaginary friend as a kid, that guess what, I had forgotten. Poor fella.
It just further goes to prove… becoming an adult kind of sucks. We get so bogged down by responsibility, hardships we encounter over the years, working most of our life away, etc. We slowly lose the magic that is childhood.
Needless to say, by the end of IF, I was bawling. On the walk to the car, I was bawling. On the drive home, I was bawling and also giving my kids a whole speech that I am sure that they did not expect to get that day.
In between sobs, I told them to enjoy every second of their childhood and that they will never be as carefree and happy as they are RIGHT NOW. If I could go back to riding bikes with my cousins up and down our dead-end road, eating Watermelon under the patio after swimming in the pool all day, getting popsicles from the ice cream truck every Sunday when it made its way down our street, laying my head down on my pillow at night without one worry – I would do it in a heartbeat.
When your parents say don’t wish your childhood away, listen to them. There may be a few perks to being an adult, but nothing could ever amount to that sweet innocence of childhood. I am blessed now that I get to watch my girls enjoy theirs and I will do everything in my power to ensure that they stay sweet and innocent for as long as possible.
“Today is the oldest you’ve ever been, and the youngest you’ll ever be again.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
(Paige Gurgainers is a mother of three girls, digital journalist for Webster Parish Journal and publisher for Bienville and Claiborne Parish Journal)