Growing up is definitely a not-so-enjoyable experience because all of a sudden, you realize that you’ll spend a great number of years dealing with shitty jobs (before finally finding your dream job ), that you’ll be constantly judged for any sign of immaturity , and worst of all, you realize that there’s something utterly wrong with the society and the world we live in.
And then, there are little kids . Carefree, spontaneous, playful, cheerful, with a primary job that consists of asking a million questions a day, worrying about whether they got their daily dose of Disney movies , and fantasizing about becoming an astronaut or a movie star.
Being a grownup person and being a child are two extremes, but when combined, you get a happy medium, a gray area called being an adult, but still a kid at heart!
If you’re still a kid at heart , you still have that spark within you, and you still know how to find joy in little things , no matter if you’re in your late twenties, thirties, forties, fifties, or beyond.
Being young at heart is not a question of age , but a question of spirit because no matter how old you are, you can still maintain your inner child !
No matter how old you are, you can be both a responsible individual and still a kid at heart enjoying small things and being happy with almost anything that life gives you.
Here are some legit signs that prove you probably still are:
20 LEGIT SIGNS YOU’RE STILL A KID AT HEART
You automatically start dancing when eating your favorite food
Remember when you were a child and your mother would give you something really delicious and once you started eating it, you’d instantly fall into dance mode by shaking your head to some imaginary melody and probably lifting your arms with a fork in it like you just won a trophy? (Well, I’m still doing it today, and I’m really not that young anymore.)
So, you know that you’re still a kid at heart if on the first bite of your favorite food, you start shaking your booty, head, and arms like there’s no tomorrow.
Kids at heart don’t take things too seriously, so food is no exception.
They see it as something necessary in terms of nutrition and also something enjoyable that should be celebrated with special moves and praises.
See also: 16 Signs Food Is Too Much Of A Priority For You
You don’t freak out when it’s raining and you don’t have an umbrella
Children and adults don’t have the same perception of rain.
To children, rain is a gift from God sent to make their day—and make their parents mad for too much playing outside during or after the rain.
Generally, kids don’t really give a damn whether rain will ruin their hair or outfit.
Their biggest concern is succeeding in sneaking out ASAP before that gift from God stops falling from the sky.
When it comes to adults, rain is basically connected with a pain in the ass, the biggest destroyer of their hairstyles, shoes, and outfits.
Rain is seen as a potential ‘liquid flu’—once it drops on their bodies, it starts making them sick (both physically and mentally).
So, you definitely know you’re still a kid at heart if you don’t really give a damn about any of it.
You don’t freak out when it’s raining and you don’t have an umbrella. You don’t go into apocalypse mode, telling others to hide before rain takes away our lives.
You don’t see coffee as the source of life
I remember when I was a kid, I would really enjoy that intense smell of coffee in the morning, but I never understood why some adults cannot start their day without drinking that holy liquid.
As I’ve grown up, I’ve become even more concerned with that fact.
Wherever you go, all you can hear is: OMG I haven’t had my coffee yet..Don’t make me kill you! or I have a headache..
I probably haven’t had enough coffee or I got fired..it’s probably because I forgot to drink coffee this morning and my brain couldn’t function properly, so I made a stupid mistake.
Somehow, coffee has become the source of life without which one simply cannot start or go through their day.
I mean, since when has coffee become both the biggest destroyer and savior of our lives?
If you agree with me, then you know you’re still a kid at heart because coffee is something you enjoy drinking, but you don’t connect it with every aspect of your life or see it as the source of life.
You can’t help but laugh your ass off at the most inconvenient times
Unlike the majority of adults, children laugh all the time, and they especially laugh their asses off at the most inconvenient times because they simply can’t help themselves, and they can’t understand the seriousness of the situation.
To some people, acting seriously all the time is one of the biggest signs of maturity (especially if you’re around 40 years old ), and if you laugh at inappropriate moments, you immediately categorize yourself in the section young adult or baby.
But, I wouldn’t agree with them. In some ‘inappropriate’ situations like dull meetings or awkward luncheons, sometimes laughter is the only thing that can help people not to kill themselves out of boredom.
So, if you don’t suppress your laugh at those ‘inappropriate’ times, then you know you’re a legit kid at heart!
Then you know you’re living your life to the fullest because a little laughter never killed nobody.
Toy stores are still your favorite places to be
Toys are children’s source of life (just like coffee to adults), and as children, we spend half of our lifetime in different toy stores looking for that special one toy among others (especially if your mother has warned that you can only buy one thing, so you gotta choose wisely).
When we grow up, the only time we still visit toy stores is when we’re looking for a gift or gift ideas for children in our family.
But, if you’re actually visiting toy stores under the excuse that you’re just looking for toys for a younger family member and in reality you’re doing it for yourself and yourself only, then you know you’re still a kid at heart !
If you still have that feeling of utter excitement once you approach those colorful, inviting toy stores and you feel like they’re calling you to go inside or you’ll miss something really important, then you know you’re still young at heart .
You know your soul is craving toys if every time you enter a toy store it feels like it’s the first time .
You still sense magic in the ordinary things in life
Kids have really wild imaginations, and everything seems possible to them.
They don’t see Harry Potter as a fictional character because to them, he’s the most powerful human being on Earth.
They’re convinced that one day they’ll meet him somewhere, and he will teach them all the tricks he knows.
Unlike the majority of adults, kids are perfectly capable of turning ordinary things in life into sources of superpowers, and if you’re still doing the same, then you know you’re still a kid at heart !
You know you’re still young at heart if you have a strong urge to say “Open Sesame” every time self-opening doors are about to open, if you feel (or pretend) like you’re Batman every time you wear a mantle around the house, if every time you sense that something’s going to happen you’re convinced that you have psychic powers.
For sure you are still a kid at heart if you imagine that cartwheels in a grocery store are actually your mini car, if you’re convinced that some of those fake Santa Clauses is actually real, if you imagine that you’re an astronaut once you put a helmet on your head, if you still expect to receive a letter from Hogwarts—and sometimes mistake other letters for that one.
You still jump on beds as if they’re trampolines
Regularly jumping on beds is every child’s daily routine. There’s something really soothing in that cardio exercise (especially if you pretend that your bed is a huge trampoline).
When we grow up, we don’t really see the need to jump on beds because we are the ones who need to make them (and not our parents).
But, if you’re still a kid at heart , this will not prevent you from indulging in the ‘jumping on random beds adventure’.
You know you’re still a kid at heart if you’re jumping on random beds like hotel beds, the bed at your friend’s house, or even beds in a store (if nobody’s looking of course) “because you gotta check if it’s comfortable enough for you to buy it”.
You can’t help but whine for every bad thing that happens to you
Whenever something bad happens to a child, the only outcome and possible reaction is whining.
If someone hits them at school, they pretend that they’re okay until they get home and start a whining session that may even last for hours.
If someone promised them that they’d buy them that one special toy and they didn’t, they whine because their world has just collapsed.
If they miss an episode of their favorite cartoon and if their parents forbid them to eat sweets that day, they whine because their life doesn’t make sense anymore.
Whenever something bad happens to an ordinary adult, the only outcome and possible reaction is cursing, drinking, or punching things around you.
But, if you’re still a kid at heart , you won’t curse, drink or punch things around you.
Instead, you will whine just like a little child because it’s the only way that you can express how you feel and the only legit way to get rid of all the negativity that has accumulated in you.
So, if your boss, your best friend or someone else has disappointed you, you go to your safe place and start whining like it’s the end of the world because in your eyes, it actually is, and you don’t give a damn if others don’t understand the seriousness of your situation.
You feel like kids are the only people who actually understand you
The majority of hardcore adults are really annoyed by children’s need to ask a million questions, to throw toys around the house, to laugh at inappropriate moments, to pretend that they have superpowers and similar.
But, if you yourself are still a kid at heart , you understand all of this, and you don’t blame them.
Instead, you feel like they are your people—the only people who actually understand you to the core.
You think that people generally take themselves too seriously, and that’s why you have these urges to become a kid again and join them while they play or throw things around.
You understand their need to explore and to create because you still have the same needs yourself, and that’s why you simply can’t blame them no matter what they do. You see it as a relief from everyday stress.
Their innocence reminds you of the only thing that’s real in this world, and you strive to preserve yours as well.
You can’t hold grudges more than five minutes, even if your life depended on it
There’re nothing more sacred and innocent than a child’s inability to stay mad at someone (especially at their best friend).
Unlike adults, children have a whole different perception of how arguments and fights work.
For example, if their best friend tells them something really insulting, they don’t take it too seriously because they know that deep down in their hearts, they don’t really mean it.
Instead of holding grudges for an eternity, children often turn a blind eye to such things or in more serious situations stay mad for approximately 5-10 minutes.
If you’re one of those people who can’t hold grudges more than five minutes even if your life depended on it, then you know you’re a kid at heart.
You can’t be mad at your best friend even when they tell you your new haircut looks awful or when you have a fiery argument about something that both of you know is stupid.
Instead, you forgive freely because holding grudges is for pussies.
You believe that anything is possible
If you ask a child about their wishes and dreams, they will tell you that one day they’re going to be an astronaut , a pilot, filthy rich, famous, and similar.
They will tell you that because in their heads, anything is possible. Yup.
The majority of adults lose that sense of magic and hope in the fulfilling of their dreams.
They become satisfied with their mediocre jobs and toxic friends.
They no longer think about the future because they’re solely focused on paying their bills and trying not to go bankrupt.
But, if you as a legit adult still think that anything is possible, then you know you’ve preserved that inner child spark within you!
If you still think that one day you might be famous, that one day you might be living in a villa, have a private pool, travel around the world, and achieve all the other things from your bucket list (no matter how unreasonable they are to regular humans), then you know you’ll forever be a kid at heart.
Then you know you’ll forever be young!
You still freeze when you’re in the vicinity of something really expensive
Lord knows that children are the biggest source of accidents, broken things in stores—and especially broken things in stores that are really expensive.
And Lord knows how many times your parents had to pull your sleeve so that you didn’t bring them to bankruptcy by crashing that bottle of cognac under the expensive name like Hennessy or Rémy Martin Black Pearl Louis XIII. (Truth be told, the more letters a bottle has, the more expensive it is.)
And if you still, as an adult, freeze when you’re in the vicinity of something really expensive, then you know you’re still a kid at heart because you don’t trust yourself.
And you know that this is the real truth if your friends or family members still pull your sleeve in a store when you come to the section where all expensive things are.
And you can’t even blame them because you’re the one who doesn’t trust yourself in the first place, so you’re actually thanking them in the end for helping you not to do something really terrible that would have resulted in financial bankruptcy.
Your love for all types of human beings is limitless
The number one reason why children are so easy to deceive is because their trust in human beings is limitless.
They trust and love everyone with the same amount.
Their parents, their teachers, some random stranger on the street who just waved to them, and even politicians—if they find them amusing enough—are all equally deserving of a child’s trust.
And when they become adults, their faith in humanity significantly drops because they realize that not all people are necessarily good company.
They start dividing people in accordance with their capabilities, status, and even the color of their hair.
If you don’t have the tendency to do so and if your love for all types of human beings is still limitless, then you know you’re still a kid at heart .
You know that there are good people and bad people in the world, but you still choose to respect them equally because you never know what’s the real cause of someone’s bad behavior.
Maybe they’ve been bullied in their past or similar, and now they’re exhibiting the same behavior toward others.
You understand that there are tons of people all with different personalities, and you don’t judge their way of eating spaghetti with their fingers or their need to sometimes be a real pain in the ass.
You spin around in the swivel chairs at work when nobody’s watching
If you give a child a swivel chair, you already know what will happen. They will spin around until they vomit or until they crash the chair or themselves.
T here’s this indescribable joy in their eyes and on their faces once they realize the thing is spinning on its own without their assistance.
And if you put an adult man or woman in that same chair at their work in the office, they will just see it as something necessary for them to put their ass on while they’re doing their jobs.
But, if you put a man or woman who is still a kid at heart in that swivel chair, they will look for every opportunity to start spinning around when nobody’s watching them because it’s fun to do, and it brings them right back to their childhood!
You can’t stand being passive
If you tell a child to stay still and not move in their chair, they will do the exact opposite. There’s not a chance that a child will ever be passive, especially when they’re told to be so (unless they’re a hardcore introvert).
Children are, by nature, big explorers, hunters, trouble makers, and life lovers (or liver eaters).
When life gives them lemons, they make sure to squeeze the life out of them and make lemonade. No matter what happens, they always stay active and on track.
If you’re still acting that way even though you’re an adult now, then you can be sure you’re still a kid at heart !
If you’re still exploring everything around you, admiring even the most stupidest or weirdest things, saying what you really mean and living life actively instead of being a passive observer, then you know your inner child is still there within you.
Some nights you’re convinced there’s a monster under your bed
Remember all those stories about that famous monster under your bed when you were a child?
I guess our parents were so damn irritated by our unwillingness to sleep, so they needed to invent some mythical creature that would keep us glued to our bed.
And if you still, even as an adult, sometimes think that there’s a monster under your bed so you make sure not to put your legs outside the bed, you belong to a crew called ‘ kids at heart ‘!
It means you still believe in magic and superpowers which are traits of all people who still have that innocent spark within their souls.
You appreciate the little things
Just as children, you admire sunsets, clear blue skies, beautiful flowers, cute animals, and when someone gives you the most basic things like a new pencil or similar.
You appreciate the little things because you’re still a kid at heart , and you don’t have difficulties noticing them.
You appreciate honesty, nice words, compliments, meaningful conversations with strangers, and reading your favorite book.
You appreciate life and all its wonders because you’re an active participant and the master of your own happiness!
You have a high tolerance for bullshit
Children’s carefree and sometimes careless nature is what makes them children.
They could see a person doing something totally wrong or saying something totally wrong and they wouldn’t give a damn about it because life goes on.
They’ve certainly got no time to constantly think about other people’s bullshit.
And if you’re of the same thinking, then you know you’re still a kid at heart .
If you have a high tolerance for bullshit, it means you’re consciously choosing not to poison your life with toxic words and toxic people .
It means you have a strong filter for bullshit just like children.
You don’t care if someone is gossiping about you because you have your own life, and you’re not planning on wasting it on worrying about what other people think.
Creativity and curiosity follow you everywhere
Children have these special, flexible, imaginary glasses with which they’re observing everything around them.
They notice and learn things that the majority of adults cannot because they lack creativity and curiosity.
But, if you happen to also have these two special traits, then you know you’re one of those people who are still kids at heart .
Other people might just see a random thing, but you see endless possibilities and adjustments that you could perform on that one thing.
And your constantly asking questions about the most basic things is a sign that your curiosity is at high level (just like children’s), and you simply can’t help yourself but strive to learn as much as you can from every situation which is an awesome trait to have!
You’re a terrible liar
When a kid is lying about something, you can see it in their eyes, and they start laughing or uncontrollably fidgeting like they’re having a seizure.
Kids are terrible liars because they still haven’t learned how to be in control of their emotions (especially when they’re trying to hide something from you).
If you, as an adult, are still a terrible liar, then you know you’re still a kid at heart for sure!
If you have difficulty pretending to believe that something is true when it’s not, then you know you still have the pure heart of a child which is really rare in today’s world, so you should definitely be proud of yourself!
If you’re still a kid at heart, keep nourishing your inner child because life is too short to be overly serious and mature all the time.
You know that you’re living your life to the fullest when you find joy in things that most people find trivial. So, keep up the great work and enjoy every second of it!
See also: This Is What Life Means To Me
