I think a lot about what adulthood must look like to my eight-year-old daughter. A few weeks ago, as we were watching someone struggle to get a stroller onto a streetcar, my heart sank when she turned to me and said, ?Mom, is it any fun at all having a kid" Because it just seems like so much work.? What she doesn?t realize is that I do think about having fun. But nine times out of 10, it?s in the context of making sure she has it?scheduling play dates and sleepovers; driving her to activities; sitting in a dimly lit hallway with other parents, watching the minutes of her hip-hop class tick by, while she has the time of her life on the other side of the door.
Like most adults today, I spend exactly zero time making sure I have a comparable amount of fun for myself. And lately, life feels completely stacked against having fun. Between our sandwich-generation responsibilities, dire headlines about climate change, financial security looking like a fever dream and Donald Trump still (still!) not being impeached, having fun?real, spontaneous, pee-your-pants kinda fun?seems about as likely as, well, Donald Trump being impeached. Even our family holidays have become disconnected from looking for ways to have a good time, overtaken by the bigger imperative to relax and unplug. (I?m not alone here. One survey found that 82 percent of Canadian travellers book trips to relieve stress.)
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