Let them be kids

Let the kids play.  You know, PLAY.  Chase each other. Get on their bikes and be gone all day.  Build sand castles.  Bury each other in the sand.  Be BORED and figure something out.

The argument I'm about to present is on and on.......  I'll give you my opinion first.  First disclaimer,  I don't read the newspaper.  I don't watch TV.  I don't follow news on the internet.  I am LIGHT years behind on anything everyone else considers "important".  HOWEVER, I do know - that a few years ago (and I believe it was our current President whom made this a law - but for all I know, truly, it could have been the previous President) they changed the law where "children" could stay on their parents insurance until the age of 26.

I'm sorry, 26 is no longer a child. (this is the opinion part)   Yes, it's still "young" - depending on where you are in life.  If it helps people out, that works for me.  I don't much proclaim what my "children will or will not be like" when they are older.  We tend to eat those words.  HOWEVER, I consider, once you are out of college, it's time to help them become even more self-sufficient than I have already done.  Being on my insurance at age 26 is not something I would consider an accomplishment in MY life, if my kids are still there.

HOWEVER - between now and then - let them play SOMETIMES (and more often than not).  Yes, somethings do need to be organized.  Yes, we need routines and schedules.  Those are good things.  Just not ALL THE TIME.

One of our favorite beaches is the Mauna Kea Resort - there is a resort on one side and a public beach on the other half.  There are 40 public parking spots.  Of course, my kids swim in the pool and hang out in the hot tub.

Not that I would do any such thing at this age, but I have been into the hot tub a couple of times myself.  While there, there were also some teenage girls hanging out - I got to be the fly on the wall.

ONE, was "benched" from cheer in the fall, because she has to miss one practice to take her brother to college.  Another was kicked off her team because their family was on this vacation in Hawaii - IN JULY and would miss cheer camp.

Sorry kids life happens. But at the same time - seriously??? You are kicked off a team because you were on a vacation in July (Yes, she could have been trying to "save face", but we are giving her the benefit of the doubt here).   We SO have to schedule our lives around our children and we wonder why this generation is SO unhappy.  When we don't schedule our lives around theirs, they are "punished" by the "establishment".  Go harder, faster, sooner.  Seems to be our theme these days.  Where do you volunteer?  Where was your internship?  What is your GPA?  And it all better be perfect, or we don't want to hire you.  We don't want you on our team.  You will never play for us....... 

SO WHAT?  Their lives might turn out okay regardless.  I don't know much, but I can tell you, we live in a place where majority rules.  And I can't guarantee you anything in life, but I CAN guarantee you that, if you ARE NOT #1 in your class, #1 on your team and on and on and on - you are with the rest of us.  The majority. 

These kids don't WANT for anything.  What do you want to be when you grow up?  I don't know is the answer.  It's okay, they shouldn't.  Even if they think they do, they can change their mind.  Growing up isn't even on their list.

I have 13 year old's building sand castles, burying each other in the sand and making domino trails this summer.  We've forgotten shoes, clothes and stuff at the beach.  We have been through 3 volleyballs (one is stuck in the palm tree in front of the house - one was lost and the other got a hole in it, because, imagine this:   from throwing it at a prickly bush - to see if it would stick (it didn't)

Soon, they will have jobs, hockey/swim schedules, interships, tutoring and on and on to their organized structured lives.  Today, though, we have to go find beach glass......

For tomorrow, they will be grown and gone.  Today, we must play.......