Kids at Heart

I love the Muppets.  I love marshmallows and stuffed animals and If You Give a Mouse a Cookie and Don't Let The Pigeon Drive The Bus.  I guess you could say I'm a kid at heart.  And I know that this has guided my exploration of children's media.  There is a warmth in so much of the content made for children that I can't help responding to, on a deep, gut level. You may not need to be a grown up kid to make content for children, but I'm sure it doesn't hurt.
 
The kid at heart thing doesn't hurt when you're a parent either.  It's far more fun to read picture books to your kids over and over when you love them yourself.  And you're a much more convincing hero or villain in a game of pretend when you can happily throw yourself into it.
 
The only problem is, kids need more than just picture books and pretend, and making content for children requires more than just loving cute, furry characters.
 
In the course of my job exploration, I have looked into many things, those that spoke to my heart and those that spoke closer to my bank account.  What's great about having to search is that your world opens up.  You feel that suddenly, there are so many possibilities, so many opportunities to do what you always wanted to do.  But, as in parenthood (or perhaps because of it), what "you've always wanted to do" is not the only consideration.  Children need more than just picture books and pretend, and, it turns out, "kid at heart" parents need more too.
 
When I stepped onto the set of One Life to Live almost 25 years ago, I stepped into "what I always wanted to do," which was a tremendously lucky opportunity for someone just starting out.  And, while those "stepping into" opportunities are amazing, parenthood, even when you have to be a grownup to do it, is pretty amazing too.  So, if my next "what I always wanted" opportunity has to wait a little, that's okay. My kids and I will still have our picture books and our marshmallows, our stuffed animals and our Muppets.