Imagine placing an order at a drive-thru restaurant. (And yes, you definitely want fries with that.) You pull up to the window and begin digging out some cash only to learn from the store employee that the person ahead of you already paid for your meal. Wouldn’t that make you feel amazing? If you were having a bad day up until that point, what are the odds that your mood changes? This concept is known as “paying it backward.” It’s similar to “paying it forward,” which is the expression for describing when the beneficiary of a good deed repays it to someone else instead of the original …
Create & Do
Dinnertime Shenanigans: Ye Olde Timey Dinner
When you’re a kid, dressing up all fancy for dinner is exciting. Although it can be fun for grown-ups too, it doesn’t take long for Adultitis to creep in when one begins to worry about which fork to use or whether or not you have spinach in your teeth. The premise of an Olde Timey Dinner -- one of the highlights from the 2014 Escape Adulthood Summit -- is to keep the fun and ditch the pretense. You don’t need to attend an Escape Adulthood Summit to experience the fun of Ye Olde Timey Dinner. Here are some tips for hosting your own: WHAT to EAT You can serve whatever you want, but the …
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5 Ways to Turn Messes into Memories
Our society is over-sanitized. We emphasize order and cleanliness and anti-bacterial EVERYTHING. But when kids do what comes naturally — get messy — good things result. Not only does Adultitis throw a hissy fit, but according to a 2012 report by The National Wildlife Federation, playing in the mud provides benefits to immune systems, hearts and skin, as well as kids’ emotional wellbeing and learning skills. According to Dr. Joel Weinstock, director of gastroenterology and hepatology at Tufts Medical Center in Boston, “Children raised in an ultraclean environment are not being exposed to …
Who’s Up for an Ugly Dinner?
If you’ve been around here for any length of time, you certainly know of our proclivity for Ugly Treats. We wholeheartedly encourage people to make disgusting-looking cookies, cakes, and other desserts...just for fun. Well, an astute reader recently reminded me that dessert doesn’t have to be the only food group up for an ugly makeover. She pointed me to an article highlighting 21 Truly Upsetting Vintage Recipes. Below are a few of my favorites: Liver Sausage Pineapple Imagine mixing together liver sausage, Worcestershire sauce, lemon juice, mayonnaise and gelatin into the shape of a …
Adultitis Antidote #2: Spatula City
About once a month, the parents would pull out a bunch of unusual kitchen utensils and pile them on the table. Things like spatulas, spaghetti forks, soup ladles, whisks, potato mashers and giant serving spoons were on display. Each child was instructed to select one item from the pile. And then they would have to eat their entire dinner using just that utensil. To make things even more interesting, the mother kept the dinner menu a secret. This is an idea that I got from an elderly couple in Virginia several years back. Their kids loved it so much, that now that they're older, they …
Dude Transforms Deck Into Pirate Ship
In January, I did a program for a big healthcare company and afterwards I met a guy named Randy who said he had a deck in his backyard that looked like a pirate ship. Naturally, my curiosity was stoked. Did it come with the house? Was it seaworthy? Was talking like a pirate required for entry? Happily for all of us, I was able to get the full story -- plus pictures! Randy and his wife bought the house in 1999 and have been throwing summer theme parties ever since. (The first one was a Hawaiian style luau, complete with pork roasts wrapped in banana leaves, placed on really hot rocks, …
Adultitis Antidote #1: Sticky Cup
This is a wonderful April Fool's Day prank that's fun to do all year long. Just be aware of the national emergency you will cause for everyone around you. Well, some people will not even notice. But the ones who do are likely to drive miles -- I mean MILES, people -- out of their way to let you know that you have Taco Bell on the top of your car. Of course, you and the people driving with you have the task of acting clueless. That's part of the fun (and a challenge). One guy reported to me that it's the perfect way to occupy kids on long road trips. They love watching the reactions of …
How to Create Your Own Holiday
How hard is it to create your own holiday? If you want to be all official about it, you can register your holiday with Chase's Calendar of Events. But even that's not a requirement. A lady I met at a speaking engagement in Orlando told me about her son who lives in San Francisco. In honor of his birthday, he started putting homemade signs up everywhere that said, "June 1st is Pirate's Day." That's it. He put them on trains, telephone poles, and other public hot spots. And sure enough, June 1st came around and people could be spotted wearing eyepatches and various pirate …
10 Pro Tips for Your Next Jell-O Cook-off
What do you get when you mix geology students and Jell-O? Amazing Adultitis-fighting fun to inspire us all! When Meredith Rhodes Carson was studying geology at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, one of the highlights was the annual Jell-O Cook-Off in which contestants created geologically-inspired, gelatin-infused masterpieces. The photo at right is a copy of a stained glass window in Weeks Hall on campus. Some of the categories included: Tallest Jell-O, Best Representation of a Faculty Member, Most Wisconsin (one winning entry was actually made with beer), and Most Aerodynamic. (One …
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Small Rebellion #8: Scram Winter (aka How To Survive a Long Winter)
This year, Old Man Winter was especially diabolical. We got tired of waiting for him to leave, so we took matters into our own hands and invited others to join us in a Small Rebellion we called Scram Winter. The MISSION: Sometime between now and the last official day of winter, ignore the snowflakes and subzero temps and host a tropical party indoors! Do it with your family, some friends, or invite a whole cruise ship full of people; the only requirement is to be creative in your avoidance of the evidence of winter! Jack up the thermostat. Serve tropical drinks. Blow up some inflatable palm …
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