Over the weekend， I found myself colouring in. While waiting for food in a restaurant， I started to fill in my two-year-old daughters colouring book. I became engrossed in making Peppa Pig green， George blue and Daddy Pig yellow.

Before I knew it， the food had arrived， my crotchety mood had lifted and my daughters attention had moved on to other things. Little did I know， but I had become an unwitting part of a booming new sector of the economy： the infantilisation industry.

There is a flourishing market for products and services offering adults an opportunity to become a child again. In the publishing world， half of Amazons current top 10 bestsellers are colouring books targeting at grown-ups. Other bestselling books， like the Harry Potter series， appear to be for children but are widely read by adults. The average age of people playing highly successful computer games such as Battlefield is 27. And one of the most popular themes for adult parties in the UK is“back to school”.

Why do adults hanker after things designed for kids？ One reason is nostalgia. We hope that by consuming products made for children， we can transport ourselves back into our own childhood and reconnect with long-lost pleasures. I know many grown men who own Star Wars figures and vast collections of Lego sets precisely for this reason. By becoming a kid again， we also hope to momentarily avoid the burdens of adult life.

But recently， a new theme has appeared in the infantalisation industry： by acting like a child， companies claim， adults can maximise their personal “wellness”; by getting back in touch with the simple pleasures we enjoyed during our childhood， we can rediscover a state of blissful health and happiness. Adult colouring books were of interest to only a tiny group of people until publishers started to highlight their mindfulness-enhancing properties. By simply adding “antistress” to the title， The Secret Garden became a bestseller.

At the very same time as adults have taken to colouringin books in the hope of feeling better， children have started to adopt the accoutrements of adulthood. Of course， children have always wanted to play at being grown-ups. But what is striking is how grown-up practices are actively pushed onto our kids.

One spectacular example is a chain of adventure parks called KidZania， which in the words of the UK chairman is “opening childrens eyes to the realities of life”. Each park is made up of streets filled with well-known brands including H&M， DHL， and Cadbury. Inside this mini-city， kids try out different jobs in order to earn fake money， which they can use to， say， rent a car. If they want to increase their earning power， they are able to attend college and graduate.

But fantasy spaces such as this are just the start. The school system has taken to the task of making children into mini adults with gusto. At increasingly young ages， children are required to take endless rounds of tests to have their performance assessed. In September， the UK government plans to introduce literacy and numeracy tests for four-years-olds. In the U.S.， primary schoolage children are taught to develop their leadership capacity—some schools even have annual events where children can “showcase their management skills to community members and business leaders.”

Soon， children as young as five will be taught entrepreneurship skills in British schools. From primary school onwards， many children are encouraged to build up their CVs. In China， the pressure has become so intense that a lucrative industry has emerged for creating fake CVs for the under-10s that can run up to hundreds of pages.

It seems we live in a world that has been turned upside down. While parents do colouring， or spend time playing at work， their children are busy building their CVs， developing entrepreneurial skills and struggling to hit their performance metrics （i.e. pass their exams）.

Perhaps instead of continuing to load up our children up with ever more onerous adult responsibilities， we might instead allow them to act like kids again. After all， were only young once.

在周末時，我發(fā)現(xiàn)自己在填色。當我在一家餐館等餐時，我開始涂起我兩歲女兒的填色本。我全神貫注地把粉紅豬小妹涂成綠色，喬治涂成藍色，豬爸爸涂成黃色。

不知何時食物已被端上來，我從那古怪的狀態(tài)回過神來，我女兒的注意力早已轉(zhuǎn)向其他事物。雖然我毫不知情，但我已經(jīng)在不知不覺中成為了一門新興產(chǎn)業(yè)的一份子——低齡化產(chǎn)業(yè)。

為大人提供產(chǎn)品和服務，讓他們有機會再次成為小孩的市場發(fā)展蓬勃。在出版業(yè)中，亞馬遜當前的十大暢銷書中有一半是針對大人的填色本。而其他的暢銷書，比如《哈利·波特》系列，雖然是給孩子讀的，但也被大人廣泛閱讀。諸如《戰(zhàn)場》等大獲成功的電腦游戲玩家的平均年齡是27歲。英國的成年人派對中最受歡迎的主題之一是“重返校園”。

為什么大人要追求一些為孩子而設的東西呢？一大原因是懷舊。我們希望通過消費為孩子而制作的產(chǎn)品，可以回到童年，感受那些早已失去的快樂。我知道許多成年男子收藏《星球大戰(zhàn)》的手辦和樂高積木的原因就在于此。我們希望通過再次變回孩子，能暫時卸下成人生活的負擔。

然而最近，低齡化產(chǎn)業(yè)出現(xiàn)了一個新主題：一些企業(yè)宣稱，通過像孩子一樣表現(xiàn)，大人能夠把他們的個人“幸?！弊畲蠡?通過再次體驗我們在童年時期享受過的簡單樂趣，我們可以重拾健康與快樂。原來只有一小部分的大人對填色本有興趣，直到出版商開始突出它們對精神狀態(tài)的改善作用。只在標題處簡單加上“抗壓”二字，《秘密花園》就成了一本暢銷書。

大人開始涂填色本，希望通過這樣做能夠讓自己感覺好點，與此同時，孩子開始使用大人的配備。當然，孩子總是希望成為大人的。但讓人吃驚的是，我們的孩子被強加了太多大人生活的預演。

一家叫KidZania的連鎖冒險公園就是一個突出的例子，其英國董事長說這個公園能夠“開拓孩子的視野，讓他們體驗到真實的生活?！泵總€公園都由許多條街道組成，每條街道都分布著許多知名品牌的店鋪包括H&M，DHL和吉百利等。在這個迷你城市里，孩子可以體驗不同的工作以賺取代幣，然后用這些代幣來，比如說，租車。如果想提高自己的賺錢能力，他們可以上大學或者研究生院。

然而，像這樣的奇幻空間僅僅是個開始。學校開始讓孩子像小大人一樣學習各種才藝。孩子被要求參加無數(shù)的考試以評估他們的表現(xiàn)。9月，英國政府計劃在四歲孩子中實行認字和識數(shù)考試。在美國，小學生要接受發(fā)展領(lǐng)導才能的教育——有些學校甚至會舉行一些年度活動，讓孩子可以“向社區(qū)成員和企業(yè)領(lǐng)導展示他們的管理能力?！?/p>

不久后，在英國的學校，五歲大的孩子將要接受創(chuàng)業(yè)技能的訓練。從小學開始，許多孩子就被鼓勵建立自己的簡歷。在中國，巨大的壓力導致了一門牟利產(chǎn)業(yè)的出現(xiàn)——為10歲以下的孩子制造可長達數(shù)百頁的假簡歷。

我們似乎活在一個顛倒的世界里。父母涂色，在上班時玩耍，而他們的孩子則忙著寫簡歷、發(fā)展創(chuàng)業(yè)技能，以及達到他們的績效指標（也就是通過考試）。

也許我們不該再給孩子加上更多繁重的屬于成年人的責任，而是應該讓他們活得像個孩子。畢竟，我們的童年只有一次。