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    • To Turn Back Time

    01-12-2022

    Have you ever had the thought cross your mind, “I wonder when it’s all going to go back to normal?” I found these very words floating through my consciousness unbidden the other day. Given the current state of affairs, I think it’s an excusable fantasy.

    Because it is a fantasy, there never was any ‘normal’ for things to go back to, even if time reversal was a thing. (Time reversal is not a thing!)

    I also heard a wise voice on the radio talking about the ‘adult playgrounds’ that have started to spring up, offering a seductive slice of nostalgia. However, though we may think that we miss skipping or playing tig or whatever in the playground with our chums, what we actually miss is not having bills, a mortgage or a million things on our 'To Do' list. The games we played were a symptom of our freedom, but they were not the cause, so they cannot offer to recapture it.

    This is very human of course and I don’t think any of us are immune. Even quite young children can be susceptible to a wistful yearning for times gone by. When I conduct my storytelling events, I am always charmed by the way that older children enjoy the opportunity to regress slightly to younger days when it was acceptable to curl up on a grown-up's lap and be read a story. Who doesn’t like that after all?

    I find this is especially prevalent at the end of the academic year when year sixes are getting ready to move up to big school and are facing the mostly unknown. It’s scary, so an opportunity to relive a more secure existence is a welcome respite from facing up to the real situation.

    And that’s what we all do when we allow ourselves to indulge in a little nostalgia, or find ourselves wishing that things could ‘go back to normal’. We want to feel that someone is there to look after us and protect us from the big bad world.

    So, while you have young children, delight in the fact that you are making memories of a time they will one day want to go back to. And if your children are older, why not spend an evening reminiscing about happy times in the past? It exercises memory, embeds the experience, strengthens the bonds between you and just feels good.

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