Sunday, January 13, 2013

Introducing My Kids to My Childhood


My husband often laughs at me. Okay, not like I don’t give him plenty of reason. But. In this case, he’s consistently laughing at me for one thing. 

My incurable desire to share my childhood with my kids.

Tonight, we’re watching “Where on Earth is Carmen Sandiego?” It’s a cartoon version of the Carmen Sandiego game show I used to LOVE when I was a kid. Part of it was that I was your average trivia buff at a VERY young age-even though I was terrible at geography. More importantly, it was fun. Exciting. Educational, while making you feel like you were one heckuva detective.

Television is a big one for nostalgia-we have Thundercats and Fraggles on DVD-but that’s not all. I find myself almost compulsively driven to take my kids to the parks we used to haunt when I was a kid. To go bowling and ice skating (which we still haven’t done). To play Uno and Clue.

I had a happy childhood. I see nothing wrong with sharing it with the kids. Especially considering it seems like there’s so little quality entertainment for today’s kids. So we’ll keep making chocolate chip cookies and going for bike rides at the park and hitting the pool as often as possible. And I’ll think of it as sharing a cultural experience with my kids rather than reliving my youth.

More or less.

What one thing from your childhood can’t you resist sharing with your kids?

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