Ok, so I'm not Peter Pan, per se. I don't wear tights and hang out with children with weird names like Nibs. I don't think that to die would be an awfully big adventure. I do, however, think that growing up is overrated.
Don't get me wrong-- my childhood was not all sunshine and daisies. My father left when I was 8 (on my sister's 5th birthday, mind you) and my mom had to work 3 jobs to take care of us. I started working at 14 to buy my own clothes and things. It was a hard time, but other people have harder childhoods. My hatred of growing up doesn't stem from my wanting to stay a child, but my unwillingness to let go of my relationship with my mother. Growing up means moving out and moving on. Moving on from what though? Why should I have to move on from spending hours playing cards with my mom on some random Wednesday night because we feel like it?
I here you all saying, "You can still be close even though you don't live together anymore!" That's somewhat true, but you never have the same relationship with your parents once you've moved away. For some people this is a positive thing, but for others is means the weakening of a relationship they have spent their whole lives cultivating. Also, it's always acceptable for a parent to keep the "oh, that's my baby" attitude, but children are meant to grow out of the "I just want my mom" "phase". Why this double standard?
All this probably makes me seem like an overly-sensitive mamas girl. Maybe I am. Maybe I'm just dreading moving to a foreign country without the woman who made me who I am today. Maybe I have a point. I suspect it's probably a combination of all 3 (or at least the first 2).
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