inner child and inner adults

Chapter 21-  I read this chapter a while ago and felt that I needed to actually spend time reflecting before responding. Unfortunately time got the best of me and I never got around to posting a response.

This chapter was so incredibly interesting that I spent a lot of time talking about it with friends. It came up in conversation more than I thought. Perhaps that is because we are talking about something within us, our inner child. I feel that the “childlike” abilities and characteristics we carry with us is an issue that artists in particular are trying to cope with.

Its seems that every generation looks at the media and fears that our children are being over sexualized. I found the ideas of the existence of our perpetual inner child and child like moments to be truthful but I would like to play the devils advocate.

 I would like to entertain the ideas about our inner adult. From talking to many of my peers about their childhood I have noticed that we all have moments where something asks us to “grow up” fast. things like a death in the family, personal or familial illness, poverty, single parent households (taking care of family), two working parents ( child/ loneliness). It seems that we force our children to act like adults in many ways.  I remember this scene from the movie eternal sunshine of the spotless mind. The character Clementine makes the comment to Joel that childhood is really lonely. She attributed this loneliness to having opinions that no one listens to. I feel that the image below speaks about the simultaneity within us. The desire to get older and the desire to stay young.

During my elementary placement I had a student who was a crier. She cried about everything, crayon colors, peers, paper, every single day she cried. She was a very emotional little girl. I thought that it would be best to speak to her like an adult. To explain that sometimes things happen that we don’t expect and that having a positive attitude changes the way we feel. Basically we have control over the outcome depending on how we look at things, and that it is important to have a positive attitude. (I should practice what I preach more often.) Once I spoke on to her like this she immediately changed her attitude. I also spoke to the class as a whole about having positive attitudes. Once I expected more of them they met those standards (with plenty reminders of course).

I realized I was tapping my heels to make music and entertain myself as I waited for my bridge conference to begin. It brought me back to my childhood, in church shoes, tapping around to feel special. I remember how those shoes made me feel older like my mom. I almost felt like I grew right then, having forgotten and remembered something simultaneously.  I laughed at the thought of having to wear noisy heeled shoes as a part of my professional wardrobe.

Growing is so strange. Does it happen without us noticing? or does it happen just before those weird moments when we realize we have grown?