Thinking Like a Kid Again

This past weekend I had two opportunities to revisit the pre-adolescent brain—I watched "A Christmas Story" and spent time on Sunday evening playing with a baby who's less than a year old.


Playing with the baby was mentally exhausting.  I'm used to figuring people out, -ish, and understanding basic reasons why people do what they do.  I'm a psychology major!  But trying to read this kid's mind was impossible.  It was the most random amalgamation of actions and screeches and squeals and clicking sounds that I'd ever encountered.  There was no deciphering it.  I got hopeful when he would look directly at the toy I was offering him, seeing perhaps some gears turning in his head, but then he would start shaking his whole body up and down and kicking his legs out like he was doing the butterfly-stroke.  All this while laying on his back, wrapped in blankets with a pacifier in his mouth.


It was much easier to understand the kids in A Christmas Story, because there was clever and adult-friendly narration to explain everything in a simple, humorous way.  For those of you who haven't seen it, A Christmas Story came out in the early 80's, and is a hilarious story seen through the eyes of a kid (and narrated by him as in a grown up voice) trying to get what he wants for Christmas, as well as survive the local bullies and observe domestic affairs at home.  It is hilarious.  Maybe you know the part where he climbs up the slide to tell the mall-Santa what he wants, is rejected, and literally booted back down the slide.

Ralphie just wanted a BB gun for Christmas.

Here are some of my favorite quotes from the movie, which really help to show how this kid, and all of us, thought when we were young:

Flick: Are you kidding? Stick my tongue to that stupid pole? That's dumb!

Schwartz: That's 'cause you know it'll stick!

Flick: You're full of it!

Schwartz: Oh yeah?

Flick: Yeah!

Schwartz: Well I double-DOG-dare ya!

Ralphie as Adult: [narrating] NOW it was serious. A double-dog-dare. What else was there but a triple-dare-you, and finally, the coup de grace of all dares, the sinister triple-dog-dare.

Schwartz: I TRIPLE-dog-dare ya!

Ralphie as Adult: [narrating] Schwartz created a slight breach of etiquette by skipping the triple-dare-you and going right for the throat!

(After the kid does it and has to be rescued by the fire department, the teacher tries to guilt-trip whoever was responsible.)

Miss Shields: "Now I know that some of you put Flick up to this, but he has refused to say who. But those who did it know their blame, and I'm sure that the guilt you must feel would be far worse than any punishment you might receive. Now, don't you feel terrible? Don't you feel remorse for what you have done? Well, that's all I'm going to say about poor Flick." Ralphie as Adult: [narrating] "Adults loved to say things like that but kids knew better. We knew darn well it was always better not to get caught."