The Toddler Generation: Why Grown Adults Are Nostalgic For A Version Of Life That No Longer Exists
Zamrznuti tonovi | Shutterstock I was standing in a craft store, looking at a display of wine-shaped sippy cups and adult coloring books, when I really saw it for the first time: We, as a society, are reverting to preschool behaviors. It's everywhere.
Every day, I see grown adults go online to brag about how many steps they've taken and whine about how much trouble they're having "adulting." Superhero movies are at peak popularity, as are funny footie pajamas and cartoons created exclusively for adults.
It's undeniable that our generation is clamoring for childhood in a way we haven't before, but why? It'd be very easy to dismiss this wave of juvenile comforts as a reaction of our generation not knowing how to handle adulthood.
Here's why grown adults are nostalgic for a version of life that no longer exists
My first thought when I saw what was going on was that maybe we're hiding out in our childhood comforts because we just don't want to deal with this tumultuous world we've been handed and don't know how to remedy. Research in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology found that nostalgia increases our sense of social connectedness, boosts self-esteem and optimism, and helps people cope during periods of stress.
Reaching for childhood comforts when the world feels chaotic is a well-documented human instinct that restores our sense of belonging and security.
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With our economic woes, constantly confrontational online interactions, ongoing civil unrest, and unprecedented 24/7 bad news coverage, no wonder Snuggies, TV binges, and bacon are all the rage these days. However, ultimately, I don't believe this is us opting to regress or retreat. What's more obvious is that, as a society, we're finally allowing ourselves freedom from these inherited ideas that we have to uphold certain appearances or behaviors to be successful as adults, and instead, permitting ourselves to feel comfortable and happy, just like we felt when we were kids.
We're saying "Screw it" to all these long-held pretenses of decorum and, instead, allowing ourselves to color outside the lines while using the entire box of crayons for a change. So, despite rolling my eyes when I hear my peers using nouns as verbs ("I can't brain today!"), I don't think this trend of hanging onto childhood pleasures is negative. Quite the opposite, in fact.
If you zoom out and look at the scope of this new social norm, you'll notice that, within all its incarnations across varied demographics, the one consistent in this trend is that it encourages play.
Studies found that adults who hold onto that playfulness report better health, more creativity, and overall better coping skills when life gets stressful. From cosplay to color/mud runs to gyms hosting hooping classes, the mainstream is into indulging creative playfulness for a change.
Art galleries are inviting people to come drink while basically doing paint-by-number. Women's roller derby has had a sustained renaissance in the last decade. I could list examples for pages, but the point is that we as a whole are not just opting to turn ourselves into lazy, incapable infants; instead, we're choosing to revisit the time in our lives when we were uninhibited in our creative expressions and physicality.
Joy broadens our thinking, helps us discover new ideas and social connections, and builds lasting mental resources like resilience and creativity that we draw on long after the fun is over, Barbara Fredrickson explains in her Broaden-and-Build Theory study.
Just like when we were little, experiencing creative play and indulging in foods or environments that make us feel comfortable are all ways we take care of our health in a real, sustainable way.
We're taking the time to clear our minds, engage with our creative selves, get active, and tend to our physical needs. As a whole, we are excusing ourselves from the stresses of keeping up appearances 24/7 and, instead, remembering what it feels like to enjoy ourselves without restriction or pretention. It's good for us to step outside our ridiculous expectations of perfection to just enjoy something we genuinely feel happy doing, no matter how unproductive it is.
For a long time, it seemed like the only way adults could genuinely let loose in public was when substances were featured, but more and more, our social gatherings shift focus away from just another excuse to drink. I fail to see how attending events like Comic Con or Disney's Dapper Day is less respectable, mature, or worth getting excited over than a Cruise or Oktoberfest.
Choosing to attend events that expand our minds and aren't contingent on varying degrees of destructive behaviors is progress, no matter how you slice it.
(Although, that we get to enjoy a drink while we enjoy things we did as kids is just icing on the cake.)
While you won't see me shelling out cash for a local Adult Coloring-Books Night anytime soon (I can do that for free, in my house. Pants optional), this trend of embracing childhood joy, exploration, comfort, and play is something I'm delighted to see from us as a society, regardless of the cause. I'm a fan of rewriting the rules for how adults "should" act.
No matter how old we are, pure, nourishing comfort will never stop helping us recharge our batteries. If making myself a PB&J to eat in a bubble bath or making a blanket fort in which to watch my favorite movie for the 7,000th time is what revitalizes me and allows me to be a healthy, positive member of society, I'm not at all ashamed to keep it up.
Liz Pardue-Schultz is a writer and mental health advocate who writes about relationships and wellness. Her work has appeared in Huffington Post, Time, Ravishly, and Thought Catalog, among others.
