"Toys R Us" has brainwashed my generation. Their song that promised fun and excitement in every corner if you just heeded their plea to not grow up is the source of our countries woes. I say that they are the most responsible for this lost generation that I am a part of. A generation where 85 percent of the males age 18-35 play video games. An age where college graduates are still fit only to work as bartenders or waiters or cashiers. A generation that is taking on responsibilities that were normally taken on by people in their early twenties at an older and older age. This is a generation that is refusing to grow up and I have embraced the trend.
My father had his first child (me) when he was 20. By my age (24) he had already begun the career, which he plans to retire from next April. I could not imagine myself with a child at my age. Am I a grown up? I don't really consider myself an adult just yet. Do kids look at me like I'm not one of them anymore?
Because I am. I hope they see that. The day I have to grow up will be a sad day, because then I won't be a Toys R us kid anymore. I won't be able to sit at the kids’ table and all fun will cease from that point on. I'll have to start wearing grown up clothes and combing my hair different. I'll always have to be the voice of reason instead of the protagonist of anarchy in the household. I'll have to start saying things like, "stop that" and "go to your room" or threaten them with "I'll call your mother."
I don't want to ever do that. I want to be the cool older kid who the other kids try to be like. I want to be the one that the parents yell at for getting their children all hyper. I want to play hide and seek and ghosts in the graveyard and ride my bike to the park to play basketball and never work. And I want naptime because those building blocks make my mind weary.
But something tells me those days are coming to an end. When I used to go to stores like Wal-Mart or Kmart or JC Pennys kids saw me as one of them. They would continue running around underneath the clothes and throwing things around. I wasn't a threat to them. Now, they look at me with fear in their eyes like I'm going to tell on them. "No kid you don't understand" I feel like whispering, "I'm one of you". But they don't see that. All they see is the receding hairline and wrinkles under my eyes. It's like they think I'm a spy. Maybe I am, but I'm on their side. Why can't they see this?
I guess I'd be skeptical too. "Why does this old dude want to hang out with us? Why isn't he doing adult things with the rest of the grown ups?" Am I one of them now? A grown up? Don't tell me it's true. I don't want to grow up. I'm a Toys R Us kid.
My father had his first child (me) when he was 20. By my age (24) he had already begun the career, which he plans to retire from next April. I could not imagine myself with a child at my age. Am I a grown up? I don't really consider myself an adult just yet. Do kids look at me like I'm not one of them anymore?
Because I am. I hope they see that. The day I have to grow up will be a sad day, because then I won't be a Toys R us kid anymore. I won't be able to sit at the kids’ table and all fun will cease from that point on. I'll have to start wearing grown up clothes and combing my hair different. I'll always have to be the voice of reason instead of the protagonist of anarchy in the household. I'll have to start saying things like, "stop that" and "go to your room" or threaten them with "I'll call your mother."
I don't want to ever do that. I want to be the cool older kid who the other kids try to be like. I want to be the one that the parents yell at for getting their children all hyper. I want to play hide and seek and ghosts in the graveyard and ride my bike to the park to play basketball and never work. And I want naptime because those building blocks make my mind weary.
But something tells me those days are coming to an end. When I used to go to stores like Wal-Mart or Kmart or JC Pennys kids saw me as one of them. They would continue running around underneath the clothes and throwing things around. I wasn't a threat to them. Now, they look at me with fear in their eyes like I'm going to tell on them. "No kid you don't understand" I feel like whispering, "I'm one of you". But they don't see that. All they see is the receding hairline and wrinkles under my eyes. It's like they think I'm a spy. Maybe I am, but I'm on their side. Why can't they see this?
I guess I'd be skeptical too. "Why does this old dude want to hang out with us? Why isn't he doing adult things with the rest of the grown ups?" Am I one of them now? A grown up? Don't tell me it's true. I don't want to grow up. I'm a Toys R Us kid.
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