Everyday Canvas

Childhood

Prompt: Childhood Joys
Do you think childhood is the most enjoyable time of life or are we reading too much into it? What joys do you remember from your own childhood?

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Not really, I don't think all childhoods can be the most enjoyable time, although some might be. For the simple reason that we're fish out of water in childhood. There's a lot to learn and a lot to mess up. Because human memory is so faulty that we tend to reflect onto childhood our best hopes and intentions.

Then, of course, we don't have a say in most things including our own life and wants and needs and wishes. That is, if we didn't get a good set of parents who made us feel good about ourselves.

In my case, I was an only child, but added to being only, I was also lonely. My father was away in Switzerland during the war years and the first time I recall seeing him was when I was six. He died in an accident a few months later, but I had a great extended family and my uncles took over the fathering business, the best they could do.

Also, I had a very strict mother who meant well, and I now believe in hindsight, she loved me too much. I think, for any childhood to be happy enough, a good set of parents are needed. Some children are lucky with parents. Some aren't. Others don't even have any parents. So, yes, I truly believe we're reading too much into the happy childhood myth, in general.

My childhood is so far away, but I still recall my grandmother's loving care and her trying to tame my mother's strictness. Then, of course, my best times were those that I spent with my cousins, who on my grandmother's insistence, used to stay with us for days at a time, especially when school wasn't in session. I love my cousins and our camaraderie to this day. My cousins and I did things together that were fun and sometimes full of mischief. Then, later during the teen years, one of them became my best friend. She still is, and although we're far away from each other, we keep in touch through the media.

I consider myself very lucky with the entire family that I was a part of. Still, I see childhood as the goofy, dopey, foolish time of life, even though while we live through it, we are not aware of our own greenness and inexperience.