05.24.06 Children’s nostalgia for childhood

Young adults who make a public display of their love of cupcakes or cartoons may be the most visible rejuveniles, but this is not, I’ve discovered, simply a fad among Gen Xers or Boomers clinging to their fast-fading youth. The impulse cuts across generations; it’s shared by retirees who hoard Disney collectibles and model train sets and card-carrying members of the AARP who join together for extreme sport holidays or pajama parties. And most curiously, the impulse is also found in teens and children.

High school punks who proudly (if ironically) wear Care Bears or Strawberry Shortcake T-shirts are rejuvenile; so are teen boys who maintain a love of kiddie comic books or pre-teen video games like Mario Brothers. Which begs the question: what are kids doing feeling nostalgic for childhood? Some are self-consciously bucking against peers who can’t seem to ditch childish things fast enough (a process known in the toy industry as KGOY—“Kids grow older younger”). Others may be motivated by the same impulses that drive adult rejuveniles – the need to reconnect with some more basic part of themselves.

Parenting expert Alfie Kohn offers a few more reasons. In his terrific book Unconditional Parenting, he writes about how disturbed he was to discover that his nine-year-old daughter was watching programs on TV meant for preschoolers (he doesn’t cite the show specifically, but my guess is he’s got a Teletubby fan in the house). Sitting with her while she watched, he realized that she wasn’t regressing as much as relaxing and mastering:

“She gets more than enough intellectual stimulation during the day and deserves to enjoy some unchallenging entertainment. (If adults can relax with stupid sitcoms or paperback thrillers, why can’t a fourth-grader slum with pre-school programs?) … I (also) realized that she was actually using her sophisticated skills to predict plot developments, criticize inconsistencies, consider alternative courses of action for the characters, and figure out the technical tricks that create various illusions.”

That same process is doubtless at work with adults who return to entertainment or leisure that’s “below their level.” On the one hand, such juvenile stuff gives us a much-needed breather; at the same time, it offers us an opportunity to analyze, predict and get outside experiences that otherwise suck us in.