20 Things I Miss About Being A Kid

1. Not having a phone. I know that sounds strange in a way, but I MISS it. We talked properly, we weren't always being distracted by what was going on in our pockets, and we certainly didn't give a damn about our internet presence or what people may be saying about us online!
2. Being optimistic about the future. Life certainly didn't turn out all bad, but it was definitely much easier in my head when I was still under the impression I could be anything I wanted to be and that everything would work out alright just so long as I completed my homework and passed the right exams!
3. Eating like crap. Maybe that's a bad thing? I was a picky eater as a kid, probably almost purely because my mum gave up trying to fight me on it quite early. Which meant I ate absolute rubbish all the time. It was really good, not gonna lie.
4. Being able to hang out with my friends all day - of course!
5. Having an imagination. Me and my friends would just basically roleplay all day long, it was awesome. Couldn't do that if I wanted to now!
6. Getting SO EXCITED about looking through the Argos catalogue when Christmas was coming up.
7. I'm not even slightly creative now, but I loved all the opportunities I had for getting crafty back then. Glitter on everything! And, most importantly, someone giving me the inspiration that I most definitely lack now.
8. Wasn't life going to be great when I grew up? Obviously I was going to be a vet. And I'd have the best boyfriend, and we'd be married and I'd have kids by the time I was 25. It was all going to be so straightforward and logical. And then I grew up and discovered that actually, I didn't really like the idea of being a vet, and I'd go through numerous relationships, and the idea of having a kid even now is something that fills me with a great deal of anxiety.
9. Having basically an endless amount of time to read. And well stocked libraries to do it in!
10. And on that note - having the time and the ability to learn about things that actually interested me, before I got to the age where I had to stop focusing on those and start reading up on things I really didn't care about purely because they were the more useful skills or topics to learn about.
11. Neopets. Neopets were amazing. I was basically a very important businessman on there. I had one of the biggest shops and dedicated WAY too much time to maintaining that. Every time I consider the fact that maybe I might want to open up a shop one day, I totally blame Neopets.
12. And Petz. Especially my Dogz and my Catz, but Oddballz were cool too. And Creatures. Did anyone else play Creatures?!
13. Those make up sets for kids, that were basically just a massive box of EVERYTHING YOU COULD EVER NEED. They were so colourful and beautiful, and the sets were generally really well made and looked pretty decent. I would lust over this one in particular that I'd seen in Argos where the eyeshadows were all laid out like a butterfly, and I basically felt like I'd made it when I finally got my hands on it.
14. Going to my friends houses all the time and going on adventures - because the internet wasn't really a thing, and the TV was generally rubbish once you hit 6pm, and so you'd go and get up to all sorts of cool and active things instead.
15. Those indoor adventure parks with all the soft play and assorted madness. They were the best. I want someone to make an adult version, except as already mentioned, I'm nowhere near as creative OR FUN as I used to be and I would probably just walk around it in sad confusion.
16. Getting to go to the newsagents once a week to pick out what treat I was going to get. It was generally milky bar buttons. Sometimes Malteasers. Either way, it was basically the highlight of my week.
17. Magazines used to be really good! I loved Girl Talk and Mizz, they were the best. I learnt all sorts of neat hair tricks and got to feel like whatever was going on in my life wasn't QUITE as bad as I thought it was when I would read the embarassing stories pages. I also learned all those things I wanted to know but was too afraid to ask about sex, including all sorts of things I would never have even known to ask about.
18. I really liked doing projects at school. I liked having the freedom to go and research more or less whatever I wanted and make it beautiful. I distinctly remember doing a project about tigers, which is funny to me as they're not one of my favourite animals at all anymore but I absolutely LOVED doing that project.
19. School plays! They were great. I was never a lead, and I never wanted to be - I was way too shy. But I was in awe of those who went and took lead roles, or did musical productions in our annual events. I just wanted to be those girls who were so cool and confident and amazing!
20. That childhood gossip that is nowhere near as personal and horrible as it got as you got older. I just wanted to gossip about boys with my friends!