Escape Adulthood

Kim & Jason Nation Stories

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A Nine-Year-Old Declares the One Good Thing About Being an Adult

[This is a guest post by Champion of Childhood award winner Matt Haas (and his daughter Amelia.)] I just finished reading the latest installment of the Escape Adulthood newsletter and it reminded me of a conversation I had recently with my nine-year-old daughter, Amelia. We were driving home from school and she was lamenting that she “never wanted to grow up.” As a newly appointed Champion of Childhood, it was my duty to take a deeper dive on that comment and try and find a possible antidote to this dreaded disease. What did she know that we didn’t, and could it shine some light on this …

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One Minion’s Inspiring Message of Ridiculousness and Redemption

[ This is a guest post from a woman from Wisconsin. We've left out her name to respect her privacy, but she graciously gave us permission to post this because we think it's very awesome and downright inspiring She's a true Champion of Childhood. ] I haven’t worn a Halloween costume in years, but decided to change that for 2013. After 10 years of a tumultuous relationship (8 years of which we were married), I filed for divorce in May and have been riding the “rollercoaster of emotions” since, working through all the heartache and also adjusting to “sharing” our 4-year old …

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A is for Adultitis

Sarah lives in Minnesota. She wrote this poem last year for an 8th grade school project after I spoke at her church. Apparently the talk was a hit, coincided with an assignment to compile a book of poems, and served as inspiration for this cool bit of prose. Enjoy! Adultitis by Sarah Weber A child’s imagination Blooms in their rooms Castles and Dragons and Even more. They Figure out what to do. Give them blocks Hurry back In minutes there’ll be Junctions and bridges. Kids can make anything Lots of fun Many adults Not knowingly look past Obvious creative Past times Quickly …

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Kite Wars

One of my all time favorite childhood activities would have to be flying a kite. We lived near a bunch of trees growing up so my dad would make an extra effort to drive me to a nearby open field so that I could fly my Alf kite. A few years ago for an Escape Plan challenge Jason and I relived the thrill on the white sands of Clearwater Beach in Florida. It was awesome! I was instantly transformed into my eight-year-old self again. It's amazing what a $1.99 kite can do for your spirit. Now as an adult, I would have to say that one of my favorite things in the world is to hear about other …

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The Birthday Hat

by Sue Gudenkauf How do I Escape Adulthood? I'll tell you, family brings out the best of this in me. For my birthday this year, I happened to take a road trip with my sister, her husband, 3 nieces, and my parents to visit my oldest niece in college about 10 hours away. It wasn't just my birthday, but I also share a birthday (1 day apart) with my now 17-year-old niece. In the spirit of a road trip, I wanted to help make her birthday extra fun and silly (like she would do with her friends). So, I decided to start a new family tradition and being that my birthday was the very next day, I …

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12 Days of “Illini Wishmas”

by Minette Sternke As I noted on a comment on one of the 12 Days of Wishmas, I decided to try to replicate it to some extent here in Illinois. These are GREAT snowy weekend activities! Instead of making reindeer food for the 3rd Day of Wishmas, I decided to actually go visit a reindeer ranch nearby. They have brought reindeer here to Illinois from Alaska! You can pay for a tour and get to feed them "reindeer cookies" (otherwise known as graham crackers!). One of the reindeer's name is Jingle Belle. One apparently decided I was a tree - and was rubbing his antlers up against me! On the …

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Surprised by Slush

by Walt Kotecki When I was younger there was a "fast" food restaurant in our town call Sandy's. One of the drinks they offered was a cherry slush. That was the first time I have ever heard of them and I loved them. Nowadays cherry and a million other flavors are common and I still like them. I don't get cherry like I used to because of all the choices. This summer I have tried a different approach to my slush selection process. Maybe this fits into one of the Escape Plan challenges. The one day when my wife and I were going for one of our evening treats she said that she was …

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Spontaneous Sweets

by Bob Henry Last Thursday my manager at the telecommunications company I work for treated my whole department to custard from Culvers. We did not have the custard at the office - rather, we carpooled to the Culvers in Middleton and enjoyed a break from the hectic pace of the office for an hour and a half on a beautiful and sunny afternoon (a Ferris Bueller type of day indeed). We sat at the tables outside and talked and laughed. The highlight of this little adventure, however, was after we had finished our custard and were driving back to the office. I was in a minivan with several of my …

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The Escape Train

by Mary Beth Updike My favorite way to escape Adultitis is to play with niece Merlyn's train set. She has one of those wooden train sets and every so often we get it out and set it up. I love figuring out a track (there are enough pieces you can change it any time) and then running the train around the track is so much fun. Really turns back the years. Plus she has the Hot Chocolate car from The Polar Express. There is a button you can push on the top and it plays the Hot Chocolate song from the movie. I always push that button as I'm pushing the train around the track. Club K&J …

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