Childhood, Where Art Thou? Why Can't Kids Be Kids?

My girls are coming in with highlights in their hair.
Highlights!
I'm not even thinking about the damage coloring can do to one's hair, it just seems to me to be one of those things you wait to do when you grow up.
You know.
Like going to the spa.
Traveling the world.
Hotel parties.
Having boyfriends and girlfriends.
Getting a mani-pedi.
Staying up all night.
Seeing R-rated movies.
Drama,drama,drama!

Our kids are doing all these things as children, and it makes me wonder what they will do when they get older.
What will they do for excitement?
If you have done all the things you wanted to do when you grew up, what do you yearn for when you grow up? What do you wish for?
Is anything left?

I know.
We want to give our kids what we didn't have.
I can see the pros and the cons of that want.

You know what I want? I want them to go outside and play.
I want them to enjoy movies appropriate for children.
I want them to have something exciting waiting for them when they "grow up."
I want them to understand that there's nothing wrong with laughing at something dorky, or singing a silly tune.
I want them to know they will be a child once.

And I just hope that no matter what goes on outside of school, they know that they can be a child, just a child, highlights and all, within our classroom walls!


photo credit: roseannadana via photopin cc
Kids: conversations