On the journey to becoming a productive member of society I had to compartmentalize my inner child.
During my early schoolboy years, he waited patiently for the school day to finish so that he could finally resume his creative and playful pursuits.
As the education became more involved, he had to wait a little longer because of homework.
In university, the complicated assignments, group projects, and late night study sessions meant that he would often not get to let loose until the weekend.
The full-time job, commute, technical projects, work politics, and other adult responsibilities really did the biggest number on him though. Sometimes he would go without playing for weeks, or months at a time.
Today it’s as if my adult mask has adhered permanently to my face and I can no longer access him at all.
I never left it. I still have a baby tooth, therfore i still am child.
at 53…thats fucking pretty good
Oh hey, I’m in the baby tooth club! High five!
I had to surgically remove a tooth because it came at an already replaced tooth. So i guess I’m your nemesis.
Thats cool. I have so many questions. Is it visibly smaller than your other teeth? Did the corresponding adult tooth come in? If it fell out now would you still get tooth fairy money?
Mixed feelings here, what is an “inner child?” Feelings of exercising creativity and spontnuity don’t have to be “compartmentalized”… Just work that into your adult life. only thing that is different otherwise is obviously responsibility, that will never go away. You might have to answer to your wife as to why you chose to spend a whole Saturday watching cartoons, but as long as you make your needs known, that shouldn’t be an issue as well.
I’m sensing you have problems communicating your desires(ideas, inspirations, etc) … other than that, you might be feeling nostalgia. But nostalgia is mostly ignorance. It felt like good times at times because I was ignorant to how my parents struggled.
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I still drink chocolate milk and watch cartoons and play video games and shit in my free time. honestly the key is just learning not to care.
shit in my free time
Life pro tip: shit at work and get paid for it. Unless you work at Amazon, of course.
Not completely, but then again I am actually an adult now so that’s to be expected I suppose. Three things have helped: humor, games, and dogs. Especially dogs.
Oh yeah, dogs. I think we all had that one special needs kid in our friend group while growing up, a dog just replaces that 😂
the fuck
I don’t know that just sounds like a fake concept. I have no idea what an inner child is supposed to be. Sometimes I’m more serious sometimes more playful but that’s just mood.
Someone never had a Childhood. Sad.
I talk to my inner child every night. I tell him all kinds of things like:
- he’s worthless
- he will never be enough
- he is stupid
It’s what my mother would have done
:(
Please don’t be like that, it won’t bring you nothing but pain and suffering. If you had bad parents or a difficult childhood (as I did), then you’ll probably want the rest of your life to be as good as possible, right? So, be practical and dont drown youself in negative ideas. Ok? :)
I’m all good. I am just being sardonic. Things were a lot worse for a long time but now I’m unbothered, moisturized, and in my lane
Moisturized? 🤨
After losing my best friend and business partner who died from cancer, and avoiding a burnout by an inch, I started taking medication to even my mood.
A few weeks later, the video game Starfield came out. I remember telling my wife “It’s the first time in many years that I’m actually excited about something, and really looking forward to having fun”.
Starfield was made for my inner child.
Having a blast out in the settled systems?
Lots. I survey planets just because.
Having kids really helps, but it’s a long term commitment and they grow up. I loved playing with my kids when they were little. It was definitely part of what made parenting so rewarding
I don’t really have an inner child. My childhood sucked. I have nightmares about feeling angry and scared and trapped like I did as a child. My adulthood just keeps getting better. I’m learning to enjoy life and the world for the first time, and I’m a more productive member of society for it. What you describe is totally alien to me.
It’s also an important trauma processing technique. If you had a shitty childhood like us, it’s called reparenting instead.
Similar. Riding on rollercoasters, watching wholesome cartoons, and reading good fiction don’t feel childish to me, they just feel like well-deserved fun. Why associate that with childhood, when childhood lacked freedom?
You could totally work with your inner child on that basis. Obviously don’t have to. But just imagining this little version of you and the hardship they had to endure, thinking about what they would have needed from an adult, and imagining yourself being that adult for your imaginative younger self - that would be very much in line with the idea of the technique.
I never fully disconnected to my inner child, had a brief period of my life where I tried to act all mature and pretentious and suppressed some habits but slowly diverged back to my natural self.
Today I can confidently say that I am a productive and respected member of society while keeping my inner child up and I’m very very happy with it! So in my eyes it’s possible to be both in today’s world
I play and make music, this seems to give me back what i thought i had lost, a feeling of purpose and freedom to express myself.
When I go to the beach I dig deep holes in the sand. Does that count?
I never disconnected. I just stopped doing certain things in front of other people.
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