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 and maybe, just maybe, give us some sage advice to minimize the affliction? So I asked her to tell me why being a grown up is so bad. And I quote:

1. Because you’re too big to do anything fun like kids rides and stuff.
2. You look old and not like a kid.
3. You have to stay home alone.
4. You have to pay bills and taxes.
5. You have to go shopping.
6. You don’t like kids shows on TV anymore.
7. You don’t like kids music anymore.
8. You have to get a job.
9. You have to clean the house.

The one and apparently only good thing about being an adult is……

1. You get to have kids of your own, have a family and make all the rules!

So from the mouths of babes comes the answer to all that we seek. As “adults” we have the power to make all the rules, yet many of us fail to use the very power we are granted with age. Instead of making the right rules, like dance like no one is watching and the towel baths rule, we decide games are dangerous!

So tonight when you go home, stop whatever you are doing and watch your kids and they will help you decide what rules you really need to keep, and what ones you need to break! See you at the arcade!

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 daughter.

Thanks to my wonderful support system of family and friends – as well as private counseling – I realized that due to all the stress I had to handle in the relationship all those years (as well as my husband’s consistently bitter and negative attitude on life and society), I had lost a great deal of the optimistic and jovial spirit that so many of them treasured as my best personality feature.

So, as Kim and Jason say, this Halloween was my “permission granted” chance to reclaim my spirit of silliness and childlike innocence. I assembled costumes for both me and my daughter, and what better way to be silly than to be a “Despicable Me” minion!

I wore the ensemble to my work on Halloween — I was the only one in costume in my entire office of about 50 professionals — and gave many people good laughs when they saw me, which felt awesome. I publicly shared my silliness with my daughter as we walked the neighborhood trick-or-treating on Halloween night, and I also helped out some of my colleagues with a “Trunk-or-Treat” event in our community earlier during the week of Halloween. While in my “minion” costume, I talked “minion” for over 3 HOURS while kids of all ages walked past me in line and gave me high-fives. The best part was -– in true mischievous “minion” fashion -– I would sometimes tease the child going to high-five me and pull my hand away fast and then laugh the “minion” laugh. It brought smiles to many, and then I’d make sure to give them a successful high-five before they moved on.

So for this gal, I would say this Halloween ended up with a score of Me: 1, Adultitis: 0. And I guarantee I’ll be thinking of a new and silly costume for next year. Family and friends are all thrilled to see me reclaiming my life and returning to my “silly prior self.” And it’s a wonderful feeling for me, too, as I believe I can be an even better, happier mom for my daughter. And that, to me, is the most important take-away from this experience. I vow to never allow anyone or any circumstance take away my spirit again.

A Champion of Childhood is someone instilled with the soaring spirit of childhood who rallies against rules that don’t exist while engaging in ruthless, senseless acts of silliness that undermine the slavery of Adultitis and its unadventurous version of adulthood. We like shining a light upon the most remarkable among us, holding them up as a dazzling example of what we should strive for in this epic battle against Adultitis. See more here.

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 a child would
Run to the
Situation.
The reason is simple, adults are
Unwilling to find the
Very creativity that
Would save them from Adultitis
X-rays can’t cure
Your mind. You decide if you become a
Zombie! Be more childish!!! Save yourself from this epidemic! Call the toll free 1-800 number on the bottom of your screen. No, I’m just kidding don’t call that number. Have a great day.

1-800-249-5555 =)

“I’ve attached a photo of my Dad, one of the biggest avengers against adulthood. He loves that insurance commercial with the pig and the pinwheels and recently had us push him in his wheelchair through the dining area at the facility that he’s temporarily at to recover from some health issues. The whole time we pushed him around he was yelling “wee, wee, wee” and making the pinwheels spin. Unfortunately the older ladies in the dining room didn’t even crack a smile so Dad decided to quit wasting his time around them and head to the nurses area instead. He said he would try it again in the dining room and hallways in a couple of days.”

Jill’s dad is a superhero. His playful efforts to bring smiles and laughter to his Adultitis-ridden “neighbors” is quite commendable. Adultitis is contagious! Being the light in the darkness can be hard, but the good news is that Adultitis-free living is quite contagious too. Keep shining your light. Most people are relieved when someone dares to brings some levity and lightheartedness to a hard situation.

Thanks for your example, little piggy!

Now as an adult, I would have to say that one of my favorite things in the world is to hear about other “grown-ups” fighting (and winning) the good fight against Adultitis. Recently we received an email and video from Matt from IL. He combined two things he loved from childhood (flying kites and Star Wars) into some major Adultitis fighting fun. Matt sent us this super cool video…

Matt Kitewalker (an Agent of Adultitis) shared…

It was a lot of fun to put together!!! I was laughing the whole time as I adapted the script for the opening “crawl” and was particularly proud of how “Agents of Adultitis” looked on screen.

Thanks for efforts restoring childlike wonder to the galaxy, Matt (and Princess Sarah, too)!

When’s the last time YOU flew a kite? Pick one up this week and let us know how it goes.

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 knew I would have to follow in accord. So, the day before we left, I (on a whim) bought a Jester hat from the Lemonade Stand to have the birthday girl wear it on her special day. Needless to say, with that hat on, you couldn’t walk into a restaurant, gas station, store, hotel or anywhere without getting a smile from someone coupled with comments that ensued from strangers….’Nice hat!’….’Way cool’…..’Love the hat!’….’Way to go!’ People were smiling as they passed by – grinning from ear to ear, which as we know, smiling is quite contagious. So, the next day, any embarrassment my niece felt in wearing a jester hat in public was passed along graciously to me, which I have to say was a joy to see the smiles that occurred on other people’s faces.

What a blast!

So, from here on out, the hat will be passed along (shipped, delivered, whatever means necessary) to the next birthday in the family, and they will get to wear it for the day. Hopefully I can convince all ages in my family to wear it in public and let the joy and silliness of escaping adulthood be passed along to random strangers.

Club K&J members: share YOUR stories, strategies, victories and challenges in your quest to escape adulthood!

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 4th Day of Wishmas, I made my own ornaments. They were a little hit and miss but what the hey, it’s not like I’m being graded on it! I did discover that glitter paint does not run as much as regular paint does! As Einstein would say, “a successful experiment”!

On the 5th Day of Wishmas, I made my own gingerbread house, along with the “residents”- Kim and Jason! (I gave Kim a red skirt in honor of the University of Wisconsin!) The house was a challenge. My icing was too stiff – and broke through my icing bag! So, I got the Ziploc baggies out. My decorator tip blew right threw the first one – so I just “made my own tip” by cutting out a tiny corner of the next baggie. After a few rough tries and a few fallen sides, I finally arrived at a finished house! (With a Snowman Peep in the front yard!)

On the 9th Day of Wishmas, instead of making gourmet hot chocolate, (I’m one of those ‘weird’ people who don’t really like hot chocolate.) I made my own tea party for one! For the tea, I used a blend called “Comfort and Joy” with cinnamon and spices. MMM good! I had cookies and even shared with my new “cookie monster” (my 8-month-old Pointer puppy, Molly!).

On the 10th Day of Wishmas, I created edible snowmen. I didn’t check out your site first for ideas so went with my own – looks like I was pretty close! I used fondant for the snowman cap but never thought about using licorice strips! I made two snowmen, one with a purple “magic cap” of sorts and the other is my “spice girl”! I have a food coloring marker and used that to make the eyes and mouth! I had to hold my spice girl up – she hasn’t learned how to walk on high heels yet.

On the 11th Day of Wishmas, I decorated some stockings- one for me (Minnie is my nickname from my nephews), one for my twin sister, Marietta (we call her Acey) and one for Molly.

On the 12th Day of Wishmas, the “free gift wrap” day, I decided to recycle what I had around the house. I used some craft paper for wrapping (and some leftover green wrapping paper for my nephew’s gift – I didn’t want the Tonka toy labels to show through his wrapping!). I also used some of the stickers left over from my stocking decorating and magic markers. You’ll notice one present (the small one) is NOT a Christmas theme. My mother’s birthday is Christmas Eve – and she MUST have a present wrapped in BIRTHDAY wrapping instead of Christmas wrapping. Seems only fair. This is why, in my house, we have always saved Christmas Eve as “Mom’s Day” and Christmas is “Jesus’ Day”.

Club K&J members: share YOUR stories, strategies, victories and challenges in your quest to escape adulthood!

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 getting a medium strawberry cone. I told her that I was wondering what flavor I was going to get today. She said, “don’t you know?” I said, “No.” What I’d been doing is starting at the top of the list of 12 flavors that they offer and each time I get the next flavor on the list so I really don’t know what flavor I’m getting (unless I cheat and look ahead). Some of the choices are not my favorite but I’ve never had some of them before and maybe they’ll become a favorite!

Also, there is a special way to drink a slush, too. “No lid please!” And don’t use a straw. The other day when I told the girl I didn’t want a lid, she asked if I wanted a spoon. I said. “That’s a good idea, I hadn’t thought about that, but no thanks!”

Remember to get the most mileage out of your slush, don’t use a straw, just drink it!

Club K&J members: share YOUR stories, strategies, victories and challenges in your quest to escape adulthood!

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 co-workers and a little confusion resulted in our driving twice around the Middleton roundabout! It reminded me of the scene in National Lampoon’s European Vacation where the Griswold’s were stuck in a roundabout in London. I was shouting out Clark’s words “Look kids! Big Ben! Parliament!” Everyone I was with laughed and we enjoyed the moment.

Club K&J members: share YOUR stories, strategies, victories and challenges in your quest to escape adulthood!

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 members: share YOUR stories, strategies, victories and challenges in your quest to escape adulthood!

I’ve been able to escape adulthood by having my first child with my wife, Patrizzia. Before Miabella was born, Patrizzia and I would have a rough commute to and from Downtown Chicago every day, work, eat, watch TV to unwind from the stressful commute…and then do it all over again. It was mundane and empty after a while.

Then, Miabella entered our lives, and we have both been filled with such joy and life. Every day has been filled with new experiences and laughs. She makes every day special again….like it was when I was a kid. It’s not that we will live vicariously through her…it’s just that she brings us to a better place in our lives, and I wouldn’t want it any other way.

Club K&J members: share YOUR stories, strategies, victories and challenges in your quest to escape adulthood!

I never realized I was getting, as I always called it, “old,” and that my childhood (and even young adulthood), was gone until a few days ago. I was sitting in the living room at 11 in the morning, still without a shower while my (as he puts it ALMOST) 4-year-old screamed about being a Ninja Turtle who had “team” and my 3-month-old slept comfortably in his swing. I glanced down at the cup of coffee I had been trying to consume to stay awake after pulling another all-nighter with the littlest guy, and saw the words “MOM” written on the cup.

That makes someone at 27 cringe. At that second, I crawled out of the chair and picked up the second little plastic golf club he was using to attack the “bad guys” and decided to join in. I guess it isn’t really a way to escape adulthood (I never really thought of myself in that term), but I guess I looked like a rather large child in a bathrobe at that time swinging at invisible monsters. But the squeals of laughter both boys were emitting by the time I was finished helping in the battle made me realize that sometimes to make it all seem better all we really need to do is play. So I guess my advice to escape the whole grown-up world is to find your plastic golf clubs (or whatever the kids may have laying around), shower or none, and just play.

Then go off and down 4 marshmallows as a way to refuel (which was the advice the oldest gave me), and continue the battle. So needless to say, 4 marshmallows later we were back at it — bathrobe and all.

Club K&J members: share YOUR stories, strategies, victories and challenges in your quest to escape adulthood!