Being Grown Up

Categories: uncategorized

Date: 09 November 2005 16:39:57

This entry: http://www.cartoonchurch.com/blog/2005/11/07/bill-watterson/ in Dave's blog reminded me, I was going to write about the title of my blog.

It's inspired by a Calvin and Hobbes cartoon. Calvin and his parents go to a wedding, and accidentally leave Hobbes behind. When they get back, the house has been burgled. (Hobbes is okay though, you'll be relieved to know). Once the broken window has been swept up, Hobbes safely found, and the police spoken to, Calvin's dad says to Calvin's mum:

"When I was a kid, I thought grown-ups never worried about anything. I trusted my parents to take care of everything, and it never occurred to me that they might not know how.
I figured that once you grew up, you automatically knew what to do in any given scenario.
I don't think I'd have been in such a hurry to reach adulthood if I'd known the whole thing was going to be ad-libbed."
From _Revenge of the Baby-sat_ Bill Watterson 1991

That sums up exactly what I feel about being an adult in general, and a parent in particular. Although, once you realise everyone else is making it up as they go along as well it's a lot less scary. The scary people are the ones who don't appear to be pretending, and really do seem to be grown up.

(Dave - I hope it's okay to have a big chunk of text like this - copyright and all that. Let me know if not.)