When Did Having Fun Stop Being Reason Enough?

Today I want to write to you about something we probably all thought about as children.

Growing up.

Do you remember how badly you wanted it?

You wanted to stay up late. Make your own decisions. Have your own money. Drive. Go wherever you wanted without having to ask anyone first.

And then there were those things you really wanted but couldn’t have.

Maybe your parents couldn’t afford them. Maybe they didn’t think you needed them. Maybe the answer was simply no — and as a child, you didn’t always understand why.

So somewhere in your little head you probably thought:

“When I’m older, I’ll buy it myself.”

And eventually, you can.

But there’s one small detail nobody really thinks about when they’re eight years old.

First, you have to earn the money.

You can go wherever you want, but you have to pay to get there.

You can stay up as late as you like, but somehow the alarm still goes off the next morning.

You don’t need anyone’s permission anymore — but nobody else is responsible for making things happen for you either.

It’s funny when you think about it.

Adulthood gives us the freedom we desperately wanted as children.

It just sends us the bill with it.

And here’s the part I find even more interesting.

After spending our childhood wanting to grow up, we become adults and start spending some of that hard-earned money on surprisingly simple things.

Theme parks. Games. Lego. Colouring books. Dance classes. Christmas experiences. Camping. Collecting things. Going somewhere simply to have fun.

Even holidays where the entire plan is basically to swim, eat ice cream and forget what time it is.

But I don’t think that necessarily means we want to be children again.

I think maybe we’re looking for something that came much more naturally back then.

The ability to enjoy something without needing a reason for it.

Think about it.

A child can draw a terrible picture and still be incredibly proud of it.

An adult starts drawing and says, “I’m not very good at this.”

A child dances because a song comes on.

An adult wonders whether anyone is watching.

A child can spend an entire afternoon doing something completely pointless and consider it a brilliant day.

As adults, we seem to need a reason.

It’s exercise.

It’s productive.

I’m learning something.

I deserve it because I’ve worked hard this week.

Even when we’re doing something simply because we enjoy it, sometimes we feel the need to justify it.

And I wonder when that happened.

Maybe growing up isn’t only about leaving childhood behind.

Maybe part of growing up is finally having the freedom to give ourselves some of the things we once had to ask for — while also understanding what it takes to make those things possible.

We wanted freedom.

We got it.

We just didn’t realise freedom would come with work, bills, responsibilities and alarm clocks.

So perhaps every now and then, doing something for absolutely no reason other than it makes me happy isn’t childish at all.

Maybe it’s something we should never have grown out of in the first place.

When did having fun stop being reason enough?