Asklemmy

I never left it. I still have a baby tooth, therfore i still am child.

at 53...thats fucking pretty good

I have all of those rerelease retro consoles and a cheap projector onto an unprepped wall. (Cheap projector and unprepped wall imitates CRT blur really well)

Sometimes when adult life can fuck right off, I skip dinner and get my daughter to bed. Go get a pizza and a block of chocolate in MY car, blast the tunes come home and play Metal Slug on a 3 meter "screen".

I take a moment to appreciate that 15yo me would think that this is pretty badass.

I don't know if this exactly counts... I have embraced having kids wholeheartedly. I jump on the giant trampoline (sometimes when they aren't around). I've rediscovered going to the movies. I am a huge fan of the holidays now. And a bunch of other stuff. I wouldn't have done any of that without my kids.

I play and make music, this seems to give me back what i thought i had lost, a feeling of purpose and freedom to express myself.

One good part about having a kid is that you get to re-experience all of the fun kid stuff you remember, both as an adult and through the eyes of your kid. You can introduce your kid to your favorite shows/books/etc that you remember (and cringe at some of the stuff you forgot was in there).

I talk to my inner child every night. I tell him all kinds of things like:

• he's worthless
• he will never be enough
• he is stupid

It's what my mother would have done

Mixed feelings here, what is an "inner child?" Feelings of exercising creativity and spontnuity don't have to be "compartmentalized"... Just work that into your adult life. only thing that is different otherwise is obviously responsibility, that will never go away. You might have to answer to your wife as to why you chose to spend a whole Saturday watching cartoons, but as long as you make your needs known, that shouldn't be an issue as well.

I'm sensing you have problems communicating your desires(ideas, inspirations, etc) ... other than that, you might be feeling nostalgia. But nostalgia is mostly ignorance. It felt like good times at times because I was ignorant to how my parents struggled.

Quite a few years ago I used eBay to find some of the toys I had as a kid.. a unique Matchbox car, some original trilogy Star Wars figures, some collector cards. I associate them with my childhood so when I look at them of touch them it takes me back to that simpler time and makes me happy

Not completely, but then again I am actually an adult now so that's to be expected I suppose. Three things have helped: humor, games, and dogs. Especially dogs.

Well I didn't enjoy being a child, but have enjoyed being an adult. Maybe you need to reframe your question? I don't feel like I have an inner child (except when I was pregnant, lol) but have never lost my sense of wonder, the joy at seeing the sky, the garden, hearing music, all sorts of experiences feel so wonderful.

You don't need to be a child to enjoy life. The idea of being stuck in childhood, unchanging, is terrifying. But there is an unbroken line, everything you have done and been is yours, it's you. You are more now, have perspective you did not before, can see things in different ways.

If you are burned out at work, take a break! Sometimes I go in our little gym at work and stand on my hands, getting a different perspective on the world literally.

I still drink chocolate milk and watch cartoons and play video games and shit in my free time. honestly the key is just learning not to care.

I don't know that just sounds like a fake concept. I have no idea what an inner child is supposed to be. Sometimes I'm more serious sometimes more playful but that's just mood.

I don't really have an inner child. My childhood sucked. I have nightmares about feeling angry and scared and trapped like I did as a child. My adulthood just keeps getting better. I'm learning to enjoy life and the world for the first time, and I'm a more productive member of society for it. What you describe is totally alien to me.

Yeah usually in small bursts. If I see or do something I wanted to do when I was a kid it usually comes out a bit.

For example I saw a two hour video covering Adventure Quest on YouTube today and got a rush of nostalgia.

I find it's a lot of the little things.

I don't know your specific work/life situation, so I won't pretend to know what all the constraints are, but if you'll indulge me I want to try to challenge the idea that play is something you can only do away from all the dull stuff.

If you have a "bring your inner child to work day" would anyone notice? And what if it works out for you and you start to smuggle them in every day? It doesn't have to mean acting like a big ol' goofball in meetings, but it could be approaching the stuff you have to do from the perspective of openness, what-ifs and sometimes asking the kind of questions (like "why?") that adults usually don't because they fear it may mark them as someone who doesn't know everything and have all the answers. Or when it comes to tasks that genuinely have fewer creative opportunities, setting small work-related challenges for yourself, achieving high scores nobody else knows about, etc. (I feel like I read a blog post or something about this, but I can't remember what.) Or just having a secret laugh at what five-year-old you might have thought of a co-worker or some situation you observed. If the "adult mask" you mentioned is working for you, then keep wearing it. But you get to decide what goes on behind it.

I don't want to sound like an apologist for working all the time, and you should also be making time for actual play, on your own time, that uniquely benefits you! But I also don't want you buying into the notion that work time, where you spend so much of your life, should be reserved for suffering in a straight-jacket.

After losing my best friend and business partner who died from cancer, and avoiding a burnout by an inch, I started taking medication to even my mood.

A few weeks later, the video game Starfield came out. I remember telling my wife "It's the first time in many years that I'm actually excited about something, and really looking forward to having fun".

Starfield was made for my inner child.

Having kids really helps, but it’s a long term commitment and they grow up. I loved playing with my kids when they were little. It was definitely part of what made parenting so rewarding

Find something you like and let yourself enjoy it. Nobody's looking. You have one life, why not be as happy as you can?

To answer your question, yes. My inner child is very much active

When I go to the beach I dig deep holes in the sand. Does that count?

I never had the child phase as my life didn't allow it, but I have no inner need for conformity. I bought a plushie and sleep with it. It's comfy to do. I have a tiny dinosaur figurine. My child me wouldn't want or be able to get them, but my current self can be myself as much as my economical standing allows.

I never fully disconnected to my inner child, had a brief period of my life where I tried to act all mature and pretentious and suppressed some habits but slowly diverged back to my natural self.

Today I can confidently say that I am a productive and respected member of society while keeping my inner child up and I'm very very happy with it! So in my eyes it's possible to be both in today's world

I never disconnected. I just stopped doing certain things in front of other people.

I still catch up with him occasionally but we both got older and now we don't have as much in common as we used to

Yeah, I keep in touch. I experienced some deprivation as a kid, so as an adult, I pursue interests with glee. Maybe even to my detriment, but overall I think it's a positive thing to rush toward interesting things.

The flip side is, really draining sometimes, and I push it away in favour of gratification. Could also be a sign of an imbalance in life, if recovering from work-based responsibility doesn't happen well enough, and it intereferes with personal life responsibilites.

Yup.