Run for the sun little one

There is something special about storytime, something that we never really grow out of. After all, what is TV and film, but an extended animated version of the original bedtime story.

We humans are a total contradiction. We spend years reading our children tall tales, fairy tales and adventures, convincing them that anything can happen if you put your mind to it. We teachers further perpetuate that myth, forcing them to write imaginative stories about rampaging giants and distant turreted castles.

Yet somewhere around age 10 to 12, we start forcing reality back in. There are no giants. Dreams don't come true. There is no handsome prince, ready to sweep you off your feet.

Why?

Why do we spend so much time creating this world of illusion for our offspring, when we are all too ready to tear it right back down again?

I understand that the world we live in today is a different place, from the one I lived in as a child. There are more opportunities for those who do not carry good intentions, but unless we make a concerted affort, the next generation are going to be cynical and burnt out before they've even left school.

What's so wrong with climbing trees and playing pirates? In my day everyone knew who One-Eyed Willy was, and could quote almost every line to you. I can swing from a tree with sword in hand even now. I have the scars to prove it, yet when I did just that whilst babysitting some 7 year old boys, I got a mouthful from another mother about how I was a bad influence for them. When pressed, she said 'they might fall and hurt themselves'. Well? so what? The damn sky could fall and we'd all be dead!

Life is for living, not wrapping these kids up in cotton wool and bubble wrap. Parents of the world, I teach your children and they are boring! They are spoilt, selfish and generally more whiny than a week old baby. Give them their childhood before it's too late. Teen angst should not be starting at 9. In fact, if you get it right in the early years, it need not start at all!!

Let them play in that forest. Let them make that tent out of old duvets in the garden. Hell, let them camp in the garden all night. As Marie Antoinette once so aptly said:

Let them eat dirt!

(ok, so a slight misquote, but you're getting my drift, right?)