Okay, so it was a New Years Eve party next door.
I invited my friend Georgia to keep me company because it consisted of adults and their kids ranging from 18 months to about 8 I think.. and then of course my brother and myself.
So anyway, as I said it was a New Years Eve party. Georgia and I had a reasonable time and sat in the loungeroom with the kids for a bit. Two little girls were watching "Zoey 101" in which Zoey (Britney Spears' little sister, Jamie-Lynn) was leaving FOREVER to go to London or something. Anyway, like all lame dramatic endings, her very close guy-friend (possible boyfriend) was angry about her leaving and refused to say goodbye. So Jamie-Lynn (oops, I mean Zoey) jetted off to the UK disappointed by this guy's lack of decency to say goodbye.
As the episode wore on he decided he had to say his goodbye and tried webcamming, phone calls and the like. Georgia and I expected him to follow her to the airport and try to burst his way onto the plane with declarations of love and late apologies. At this point we turned to the kids.
"Listen," Georgia said, "You deserve to know the truth. Don't ever expect a guy to do anything of the sort."
She was right, and the little girls looked up blankly.
"They're not going to rush in like Prince Charming and save the day, sorry it just doesn't work that way."
I laughed, the girls still looked puzzled.
"Well girls," I piped up, "it's the truth. Things that happen on TV never happen in real life. Particularly those involving the opposite sex."
Luckily, I don't think they absorbed what we said. Georgia and I realised how cynical we'd become, and how quickly! It's then that it hit me - we shouldn't have said a word to those girls. We should've let them, as carefree six-year-olds, enjoy the program and, for as long as they can, believe.
How was it our place to tarnish their faith at such an early age? I remember being a kid, I believed in love and being rescued by my own special Prince. I thought we'd live in a big house and have lots of kids and remain in love forever. I was a happy kid with happy thoughts and look back on my own childhood very fondly. Kids have an absolute right to believe that life isn't all gloom and doom and a right to believe that they too, like Cindarella, like Zoey, like Snow White.. can have a fairytale ending.
Who am I to crush their hopes at such a young age? God, the world will take care of that soon enough anyway. Besides, I'm only young, what do I really know about love, loss and fairytale endings?
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