"The Slide, the Parody Songs, and the Parts of Ourselves We Abandon Too Early" Rant of the Day Blog Article Written By Jenn D Real August 12th, 2026

The Slide, the Parody Songs, and the Parts of Ourselves We Abandon Too Early

Sometime ago, my oldest daughter looked at me while I was being entirely too enthusiastic about something ridiculous and said:

> “Mom is always the first one down the slide. Sometimes I don’t know who’s older, her or me.”

She meant it teasingly, but it hit something deeper in me.

My immediate response was:

> “My inner child has suffered so much she deserves the damn slide.”

And then the conversation moved on, but I didn’t.

Because I kept thinking about how strange adulthood can become. How quickly people begin treating joy, silliness, whimsy, imagination, parody music, playful behavior, or visible enthusiasm as something embarrassing. Something to age out of. Something immature.

Meanwhile, many adults are quietly emotionally starving.

I know what black pit depression feels like. I know what it feels like when the world becomes colorless and heavy and exhausting. I know what it feels like to carry too much seriousness for too long. And because I know that feeling intimately, I have become very intentional about protecting the parts of myself that still laugh.

That is not an accident.

People have made fun of my music tastes before because I genuinely enjoy parody music. I listen to Weird Al without irony. I laugh loudly at absurd things. I write poems about raccoons with questionable authority and disco ball theology. I ask dust bunnies what they plan on wearing to the waltz while holding a carrot at midnight.

And I do not care if that sounds strange anymore.

Because I realized something important: whimsy is not the opposite of intelligence. Playfulness is not the opposite of maturity. And joy is not the opposite of depth.

Sometimes those things are survival tools.

Humor has always been one of humanity’s oldest coping mechanisms. Stories, songs, absurdity, satire, nonsense, play, and laughter have existed beside suffering for as long as humans have existed at all. Not because people were shallow, but because people were trying to stay alive inside themselves.

There is a difference between irresponsibility and restorative play.

I still pay my bills. I still handle difficult things. I still carry responsibility. I still understand grief, trauma, fear, and heaviness.

But I refuse to become emotionally beige in order to appear properly adult.

That refusal matters to me.

Some people hear the phrase “inner child” and immediately dismiss it because the internet has flattened it into a buzzword. But stripped of trend language, I think it simply means this:

There are parts of us that deserved safety, softness, creativity, freedom, laughter, encouragement, and wonder, and many people learned very early to suppress those things in order to survive.

Some people stopped singing. Some stopped drawing. Some stopped dancing. Some stopped playing. Some stopped laughing loudly. Some stopped wearing colors they loved. Some stopped being visibly enthusiastic about things because someone embarrassed them for it.

And over time, many adults become deeply disconnected from the very things that once made them feel emotionally alive.

I think that disconnect costs more than we acknowledge.

I am not saying people should avoid reality or pretend life is always magical. Life is not always magical. Sometimes life is devastating. Sometimes it is exhausting. Sometimes it hurts in ways language barely reaches.

But I also think there is something quietly sacred about continuing to make room for delight anyway.

About listening to the ridiculous song. About going down the slide. About laughing too hard. About creating strange art. About dancing badly in the kitchen. About keeping a little imagination alive even after the world has repeatedly tried to crush it out of you.

Especially then.

Because some forms of joy are not childish. They are defiant.

And honestly? If my inner child survived everything she survived and still wants the slide, she can have the damn slide. ✨