Lessons from a Mickey-D’s parking lot
After work today I stopped by the grocery store for a few things. As I was putting the groceries in the trunk, I caught sight of a little girl and her mother in the McDonald’s parking lot that adjoins the grocery store lot. The little girl was stamping her feet, and I watched a moment to determine if she was throwing a tantrum or what. She wasn’t; she was doing what I always call "the little girl happy dance of joy." I’ve been known to do it myself sometimes; my inner child isn’t so much inner as right up front. She was at McDonald’s and she was literally hopping with excitement. It made me smile.
Little kids are like that. When they’re happy, they dance and hop and generally let it be known to all within earshot and visual range. When they’re unhappy, they wail and scream and throw their whole bodies into expressing their displeasure and sadness. What’s amazing about little kids, though, is that they can do these things 15 times a minute, with complete sincerity. They really feel their feelings, as they have them, and it’s not unusual to see a kid smiling around a popsicle as the tear stains dry on their cheeks. And you know, you very rarely run across a kid with a relatively normal home life who is neurotic or self-conscious. Children are Zen in ways we can barely remember; more’s the pity.
It’s part of growing up that we don’t express every emotion as we have it; and for the most part, I’d say it’s a good thing. I don’t have much patience for adult temper tantrums. But there are more emotions than just being frustrated. Sometimes I wonder what that learned reserve costs us in mental health.