head to toe in lube<\/a>\u2014all loosely in the name of journalism. <\/p>\n\n\n\nSo when my 5-year-old daughter recently started hanging out with the kids in our neighborhood, I decided to join her. But there was a catch: I wanted to be one of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
For one week, I was the only 9-year-old boy on the block wearing arch supports. It wasn\u2019t too hard to hang out with children all week because they\u2019re on summer vacation from school, and I\u2019m on a 5-year vacation from a full-time job. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I told the kids\u201410 of them total, aged 5 to 12\u2014what I planned, and to let their parents know, lest any authorities be alerted. To my surprise, the kids weren\u2019t just cool with my experiment\u2014they were as psyched as I was.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Knowing all the secrets to life this time would make redoing childhood fun. I would have confidence, stand up for myself, and, for the first time, be tall for a 9-year-old.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Closure would soon be mine. So I bought a scooter and hit the streets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But as it turns out, I was the one taken to school. Those 10 little kids taught me seven valuable rules for being a grown-ass man.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
1. Use your imagination. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nThe group accepted me as a 9-year-old boy so readily because most of their day is spent in various levels of fantasy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI\u2019m Kylo Ren!\u201d announced 6-year-old Mark, slicing in the air with a non-existent light saber. \u201cI challenge you to a duel!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So I became Luke Skywalker, and duel I did. And, as the street became the innards of the Death Star, it occurred to me how dormant this part of my brain had been\u2014and how stupid that was. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
2. Take more chances.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nBecause my daughter was now my younger sister, I tried something I never would have dreamed of as her overprotective father: I stood her perilously on the front of my scooter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We wobbled at first, but soon achieved perfect balance. The look of total awe and communion on her face when she turned around was foreign to me. I want to see it all the time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
3. Sing loud and proud, even if you suck. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nClaire, 9, and Bella, 7, were bored one morning and staged a show in which they demanded that every kid star, one at a time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Claire busted out a pink hula hoop and a badly shattered Samsung Galaxy. Each of us had to dance with the hula hoop and sing along with whatever song she blasted. Mine was Demi Lovato\u2019s \u201cGive Your Heart a Break,\u201d which I didn\u2019t know. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But I hula-sang along anyway, and delivered what was apparently the best performance my audience had ever seen or heard. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kids haven\u2019t been beaten down by life yet, told they can\u2019t sing or dance because they\u2019re bad at it. They do what they do only because it\u2019s fun. We should, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
4. Ignore physical differences. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nThe coolest thing about young kids is that they aren\u2019t racist. Not even a little. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Here are the only two criteria they use when deciding whether or not to hang out with you: Are you a good person? Are you fun? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I knew this going in, but I didn\u2019t realize how guilty I was of noticing differences until a neighbor stepped outside to check her mail. One of her arms was five times the size of the other, which puzzled me. What condition could she possibly be suffering from?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I was transfixed, until one of my new friends snapped me out of my daze.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not polite to stare,\u201d said 12-year-old Emma, the group\u2019s very correct leader.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
5. Be less judgmental. <\/strong>
Billy, 6, came whipping down the street on his bicycle into the intersection, without looking up to see Bella\u2019s dad driving her home from day camp. Brakes slammed and tempers blew. <\/p>\n\n\n\nLater, I knocked on Bella\u2019s dad\u2019s door to commiserate. I told him I had the same experience with Billy, and that something might be wrong with him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not nice to talk about other people when they\u2019re not here,\u201d Bella interrupted, overhearing from behind the door. \u201cAnd I thought you were supposed to be 9.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
6. Be nice for no reason. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nClaire handed me a present one afternoon: a jar she filled with gravel and water in art class. She told me she wanted me to have it because \u201cI don\u2019t know.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
When\u2019s the last time someone gave you a present whose reason and timing weren\u2019t both dictated by Hallmark?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
7. Forget the future.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nWhen you\u2019re young, the future is only tomorrow, and who will be outside playing. When you think about it, that\u2019s all that\u2019s guaranteed in life anyway. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
So grab your scooter and have a good time before you\u2019re inevitably trampled to death. Probably by Billy. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By COREY LEVITAN Social experiments are kind of my forte. I\u2019ve done lots of questionable things for Men\u2019s Health\u2014like, for example, spending an entire day covered from head to toe in lube\u2014all loosely in the name of journalism. So when my 5-year-old daughter recently started hanging out with the kids in our neighborhood, I decided to join her. … <\/p>\n
Continue reading “7 Rules For Adulthood That You Learn From Hanging Out With a Bunch Of Kids For a Week: You discover a lot about yourself\u2014and the world\u2014when you act like a 9-year-old”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":291,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[54],"class_list":["post-327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-mens-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.coreylevitan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.coreylevitan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.coreylevitan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.coreylevitan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.coreylevitan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=327"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.coreylevitan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.coreylevitan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.coreylevitan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.coreylevitan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.coreylevitan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}