School is easier than work

You think having to go to school is bad? These are the easy years, life is going to get much tougher when you’re an adult and have to work.

So adults told me when I was little, and I believed it, because I had no point of comparison. And it might be true, but misses the point.

School is forced upon children by adults, and even if it weren’t too bad, it wouldn’t be how children would choose to spend their time. Adults, however, have it exactly like the children think: adults have freedom and can do whatever they want. I’m not surprised kids want to be adults, because they want to have this same freedom. Children don’t want to have it easy, they want to have freedom.

I still regularly see adults claiming kids should be grateful for being kids. Why do adults do this? It feels like taking advantage of the kids’ naivety. Adults should be grateful for being so lucky as to be adults!

Adults: you have to work? Nope. You’ve just made some calculations and choose to work, because you want to have a roof over your head and food on the table and buy clothes and what not. It’s a choice, you can stop going to work anytime. Perhaps you can get another job, or you can do without and live under a bridge.

Children: you want to have freedom? Good news – you have freedom. When adults tell you that you must do something, you don’t have to listen. Bad news – if you don’t do what the adults want, we’ll probably punish you. I’m so sorry.