Thinking back so many of the things we considered so adult, just weren’t. The little things that seemed so adult to our childhood self, like wearing pantyhose, having a briefcase, ordering a coffee, or using a chequebook. What made those things feel like grown-up magic?
They might have seemed magic to our inexperienced eyes, but overall, even today our grandchildren must see it similarly with all the tech and toys we surround ourselves with now. I don’t know about all of you but this grandma is a gamer and the other players are always astounded at the idea a member of their team is a senior .
It seems to me, when I remember my really young childhood, that my father and his car tinkering seemed so grown up. I couldn’t wait to do the same. I was the wrench-hander-er, the water girl, the hose for the radiator. All things the neighbour boy had figured out, at thirteen.
The supposed adult “tools’ that we could only use with permission, things that wouldn’t even harm us, but the adults didn’t want to see us handling them.
Much of it likely stems from being born of boomer parents, and even some of us hail from the Silent generation. We were taught seen and not heard, and very adult child-specific boundaries in a household. My own grandmother was born in 1890 and instilled in a young me, the Victorian morays that they thought were good for kids. Most of it has hit the dumpster by now, but watch out, some of that restrictive, judgy, overblown stuff still exists here and there.
2025 – jj thompson
LIFE on the HALF SHELL 