Escape Adulthood

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The What the Hell Approach to Living a Great Story

The #Notarule Tour is well underway. We have already visited a bookstore, a zoo, an old bank, and the home of some Escape Adulthood Summit alumni. But now the certifiably insane part is upon us. We are embarking on a 10-day road trip in a Ford Edge with three kids under seven. And then we’re doing it again a month later. Most parents might think we're batsh#t crazy. Sometimes I do, too. Because it is a little bit crazy. And it might not work. But that’s exactly why it’s worth doing. I loved the message I once saw printed on a sign at a store that said, “Ever notice that what the hell is always the right decision?" When Kim and I first considered the idea, one of the biggest causes for pause was cash. We're not getting any money from the publisher, and this won’t be cheap. So we’re trying to be smart. We’re using rewards points for some of our hotel stays. We’ll only be staying in places with a complimentary breakfast. We bought a cooler to transport food for lunches. …

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The Penny Date

When you have a map to anywhere and GPS in your pocket, it’s really hard to get lost. I think that’s too bad, because sometimes getting lost can lead to great adventures. Someone shared the idea of a “Penny Date” with me, and I wanted to pass it along. The first rule is to get dressed to out and grab a penny. Get in the car and let your partner choose a number between 10 and 20. This will be the number of times you flip the penny. Pull out of the driveway and begin your adventure. Heads is right, Tails is left. Every time you come to an intersection, flip the penny and turn the corresponding direction. Once you get to the number your partner picked at the beginning, stop. Look around. Make a date where you are. Pretty neat idea, isn’t it? Of course, this could be easily adapted for different scenarios. I regularly go on date nights with my daughter Lucy, and this would work just as well with her. Not to mention outings with the whole family or a couple of friends. You don’t …

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Traveling with Kids is a Drag (and Other Thoughts from My First Daddy Daughter Business Trip)

The white dog bounded down the skinny green runway, chasing a stuffed animal attached to a steel cable. In just ten seconds, the race was over, and Yeti had her prize. Meanwhile, her best friend was looking on. After the steel cable was reset, this time with a small stuffed zebra, a trainer readied herself in front of the big box where Shiley stood poised. The trainer raised her hand while unlatching the door on the cage, and then dropped her arm to indicate it was time for the wench operator at the other end of the track to get that zebra moving. The door flung open, and a flash of fur and speed exploded from the box. Shiley, a South African cheetah, pursued his prey with abandon. The big cat traversed the 330-foot track in just three seconds. It spent half of that time with all four feet off the ground. This is what we had come to see, the world’s fastest land animal doing what it does best. If you blinked, you’d probably miss it. But we were too excited to even breathe, let alone …

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Thou Shalt Not Have Fun in Elevators

Willy Wonka’s glass elevator was an Adultitis Antidote. How many elevators can you say that about? With all due respect to Aerosmith, elevators are not usually bastions of fun. They are awkward little boxes in which everyone stares blankly at the floor numbers, tightens the sphincter, and puts on their best grown-up face while staring straight ahead. It's the equivalent of entering a walk-in closet with random strangers and closing the door. But taking a page out of Mr. Wonka’s book is not that hard. My friend Dan plays a game called Elevator Fight Club with his kids. When they are in an elevator together, after the doors close, they begin a fake boxing match with each other. The action stops as soon as the doors re-open. Dan has reported that it’s not uncommon for the fight to resume quietly even when someone else is with them. And of course, the first rule of Elevator Fight Club is that you do not talk about Elevator Fight Club, so I've already said too much. Innocent, a …

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Small Rebellion #9: Pay It Backward

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 benefactor. Paying it forward is a reaction to something that’s already happened. Paying it backward is starting the action in the first place. And it’s definitely a small rebellion. …

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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 other drivers! One thing's for sure, there's no easier or cheaper way to have fun in any economy than "Sticky Cup." …

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Traveling with Kids: How to Not Get Conquered by Disney World

"Disney World is going to conquer you." Those were the words a "friendly" TSA employee working the airport security line delivered to Kim. First of all, who feels it's a good idea to predict a disaster to someone on their first day of vacation, the one their five-year-old has been counting down for over 80 days? Granted, Kim was holding a two-month old, jamming a half-folded stroller into the x-ray machine, and prepping four bottles of breast milk for a some guy with blue gloves to make sure they weren't laced with explosive material. And second, what if Little Miss Sunshine had known that Kim would also be pumping several times at the park itself? What she didn't know, of course, was that it would be our fourth time there since our honeymoon. We've now done it twice with a two-month-old. (Ben's first ride was It's a Small World; Virginia's was Under the Sea.) Many people think of going to Disney World with small children is a death sentence. And it could be if you do it …

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Adultitis Officially Grounded at Denver Airport

I spend a lot of time in airports. Airports are like kids. They can be a CAUSE of Adultitis or they can be a CURE for Adultitis. It all depends on your approach. Sara Alvarado LOVES airports. She gets a kick out of watching all the people with Adultitis freak out over stuff that in the grand scheme of things, don't really matter. On a recent visit to the Denver Airport, Sara and her son Leo bought some silly putty and did a little redecorating to some advertisements hanging on the wall. It doesn't take much to ground Adultitis. Lucky for us, we have people like Sara to show us how easy (and fun) it can be. 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 …

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Kites Aren’t Just for Flying Anymore

I've written before that one of the BEST parts of being grown-up is having the ability and the know-how to take awesome things from childhood to a new level of awesomeness. The sweet photos above? No, they were not created by some guy in a small plane or captured with the iPhone of a blimp pilot. They were taken by a camera attached to a kite. Yes, a freaking kite. You know, that thing kids play with on windy days? In fact, Kite Aerial Photography is a real thing. Google it. …

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Does Your Car Have a Kite Compartment?

I think it’s funny that even as our cars get more high tech, outfitted with GPS systems, heated seats, and hands-free calling, they still come equipped with glove compartments. Glove compartments! Although the glove compartment in my car is jammed with a great many things -- manuals, napkins, straws, ketchup packets, pens that don't work, and the like -- gloves are not among them. I got thinking about glove compartments when I was in Houston a few weeks ago for a speaking engagement. One of the audience members talked about a friend’s dad who always carried a few spare kites in the trunk of his car. That way, whenever they were out driving during superb kite-flying weather, they could just pull over and have some fun. And oftentimes, he would hand out kites to children. …

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