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Child-free woman cancels trip with mom friends because she's tired of hearing about babies

"It's not the weekend for me."

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via Kampus Production/Pexels

Five women hold their bellies in a baby shower photo.

Getting married and having a child is a huge life change and so when a group of friends goes through the same experience together, it’s a great way to bond. Unfortunately, for some people, these changes on the domestic front can take over their lives and become their entire personality.

People who are single and aren’t looking to have kids any time soon can have a hard time relating to their friends who are married with children because they have less in common. Further, when you don’t have children, it can be a little tedious to hear people talk all day about lactation, sleep schedules and spitting up.

These topics can be boring to people who have children, too.

A Redditor who goes by Remarkable_Lake410, who we’ll call RL for brevity’s sake, recently ran into this problem with her friends. Instead of feigning interest in married mom life, she decided to be honest with them about why she didn’t want to join them on a trip.

child-free woman, Reddit, writing post

A woman writing a post on Reddit.

via Magnet.me/Unsplash

“I (27F) have a group of female friends (8 of us). We have been friends for over a decade, since school. Now, we don’t live in the same place, but we meet up a couple of times a year for a weekend on an Airbnb. This used to be a weekend of good food, drinks, hot tub, etc.” she wrote on the AITH forum.

“Around five of my friends are either married or in very long-term relationships. Of these five, two either have a baby or are pregnant. I will be seeing all of my friends this year for various wedding, friend and baby events. I have been invited to this year's girls' trip, but I have said I can’t come. I didn’t originally provide a reason,” she continued.

But a friend pushed her to find out why she didn’t want to go on the trip and she was honest: She didn’t want to be stuck constantly hearing about babies, marriage and weddings on a trip that was going to cost a significant amount of money.

“[Last time], I listened to one of my friends talk about her breastfeeding plans, with vengeance, for over an hour. She is not pregnant or trying. Truthfully, it’s boring, and it feels dismissive,” RL wrote. It’s also a really expensive way to feel bad about myself.”

When her friend heard her reason, she was “really hurt,” and it felt like RL didn’t care about her and her other friends. So, RL asked the Reddit forum if she was in the wrong for being honest and skipping a trip that would be all about marriage and babies.

The post received over 4,000 responses that were overwhelmingly supportive for RL.

"On the surface, this seems like it’s just about engagements, weddings and babies. You go out of your way to be constantly supportive of them. However they don’t reciprocate that for you. They can’t relate to anything or want to relate to anything outside of their lives. It would sort of be like if you just won an award, but all they talked about was the pie they just ate that morning," Dependant_praline_93 wrote in the most popular comment.

"We all change as we get older. You naturally drift apart from some friends, especially if their lifestyle changes dramatically (think married with children, in particular). I wouldn't want to spend a lot of money to spend 3 days with a group that had such dis-similar interests. And I don't think it was wrong to be truthful when your friend asked you why you wouldn't go," Smokin_HOT_Ice added.

baby, happy couple, baby photo

A couple holds their newborn baby.

via Magnet.Me/Unsplash

One commenter with kids has a close friend who is a child-free and she has made an effort to ask her about her life and interests of just talking about parenting.

“I was 38 when I had my first child and I read an article in Working Mother magazine when I was pregnant, and it said not to be the jerk who always talks about your pregnancy and your baby to your friends, especially the ones without babies,” JellyBear135 wrote. “When I see her, I always ask about her work, her activities outside of work and recently, her new baby dog. She lives alone and doesn’t have a lot of people who always ask about her life so I make sure I always do. I check in via text every couple of weeks to ask her about her life.”

After receiving a huge response from her post, RL wrote an update revealing that another friend who’s in the same boat decided not to go on the trip as well. “I have spoken to one of my other friends invited on the trip (who is also not at the baby stage of life); she is also not going on the trip and said she is not attending for the same reason,” RL wrote.

It seems the big takeaway from RL’s dilemma isn’t just that stage-of-life changes such as marriage and having babies can create chasms in friendships. But we need to make sure that we’re not just talking about ourselves to our friends but listening to them as well. Because a one-way friendship isn’t a friendship at all.


This article originally appeared in April.

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Rare clip of the Bee Gees singing 'How Deep Is Your Love' a cappella somehow tops the original

Three brothers, no instruments, and pure magic.

bee gees, how deep is your love, bee gees live
via Edu Seijas/YouTube

The Bee Gees singing "How Deep is Your Love" in 1998.

Not all live performances are created equal, but when the circumstances and the talent are just right, they can far surpass studio recordings. In 1998, the Bee Gees, brothers Barry, Robin and Maurice Gibb, stopped by ITV’s “Des O'Connor Tonight” with acoustic guitars in hand to promote their recent release, “One Night Only,” an album and live concert DVD featuring many of the band’s biggest hits.

The highlight of the performance was when Barry got ready to strum his guitar for a performance of “How Deep Is Your Love,” the 1977 megahit from the “Saturday Night Fever Soundtrack,” but instead chose to sing the song a cappella.

Barry starts the song solo in his beautiful falsetto, but then, when his brothers join him, they create a wonderful harmony that only brothers can make. The show’s host, Des O’Connor, a notable singer himself, even joins in for a few bars.

- YouTube youtu.be

Earlier in the performance, the brothers played their version of “Islands in the Stream,” a song made famous by Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers in 1983 that was written by the Bee Gees. In 1998, the song was enjoying a resurgence as its melody was used in the song “Ghetto Supastar” by Pras of The Fugees.

Robin Gibb later admitted that the song was initially written for Marvin Gaye to sing, but he was tragically murdered in 1984 by his father. The band also had Diana Ross in mind while composing the tune.

During the appearance, the band also sang “Guilty,” a song that the Bee Gees wrote for Barbara Streisand and Barry produced in 1980.

You can watch the entire performance here:

- YouTube youtu.be

The Gibb brothers started making music together when they were children, and after their first public appearance together at a local movie theater in 1956, they were hooked on performing.

“It was the feeling of standing in front of an audience that was so amazing," said Barry. "We’d never seen anything like it. We were very young, but it made an enormous impression. We didn’t want to do anything else but make music.”

After the family moved to Australia in 1958, Barry, Maurice, and Robin were "discovered" at the Redcliffe Speedway, where they had asked to perform between races. Even over the tinny PA system, their harmonies made an impression. Speedway manager Bill Goode introduced the trio to DJ Bill Gates, who set them up with a recording session.

the bee gees, gibb brothers, maurice, barry, robin gibb Stayin Alive GIF by Bee Gees Giphy

If you've ever wondered how the Bee Gees got their name, that was it: Bill Goode, Bill Gates, Barry Gibb, and the brothers' mother Barbara Gibb all had the initials B.G. After a strong reception on the airwaves in Brisbane, Gates forwarded the brothers' recordings to a Sydney radio station. They got a lot of airtime there as well, and the band had a run of success performing in Australia, but it wasn't until their return to England in 1967 that they became the international sensation we all know today.

Manager Robert Stigwood had received tapes from the Gibbs brothers and called them up within weeks of their arrival in the U.K.

“I loved their composing,” Stigwood told Rolling Stone in 1977. “I also loved their harmony singing. It was unique, the sound they made; I suppose it was a sound only brothers could make.”

- YouTube www.youtube.com

And, as they say, the rest is history. The award-winning 2020 HBO documentary, "The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart" tells the story of the band with loads of footage from throughout their 40-year career, which includes not only their disco-era fame, but the various phases of their musical journey and the countless songs they wrote for other artists.

As one commenter wrote, "People that call the Bee Gees a 'disco group' don't have a clue. They had 10 albums out before they ventured into 'disco.' Their song catalogue is amazing and some of their very best songs were written long before Saturday Night Fever. Those 'disco' songs are classics as well. It is nice to see they are finally getting the recognition they deserve."

This article originally appeared last year. It has been updated.

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European woman shares 11 unexpected realizations after living in America for 6 months

"The United States is the most beautiful country in the world."

living the the us, living in europe, europe vs usa, travel, europe, road trip, driving
Photo credit: Canva

Road trip adventure through stunning mountain landscapes.

Sometimes it takes an outsider’s eyes to remind us what makes our home special.

Eva zu Beck, a traveler on YouTube, was born in Poland, grew up in England, and lived in a variety of European countries throughout her life. Hence why she says she’s “as European as it gets.”

So when she spent six months traveling in the United States, it was definitely a different experience. In a recent video, she shared what some of those “cultural shocks” were. Sure, there were some expected things in there (our car-centric culture, outrageous tipping practices, the neverending-ness of Texas, etc.) but also some lovely unexpected things as well.

Most surprisingly of all, it was anything but a "dump on America"-fest. Instead, it was chock full of lighthearted, positive realizations.

- YouTube www.youtube.com

Here are some of the most interesting ones:

1. Everybody smiles

“And gives you random compliments!” said zu Beck, recalling the random strangers that would yell “nice tattoo!” from across the street.

2. Bonkers date formats

“That makes no sense, surely you should go from smallest, to biggest, right? Day, month, year.”

3. Being able to turn right on a red light

“I can't tell you how many cars have…honked at me…before I realized I could do it.”

4. All way crossroads

“It’s super confusing, like a big mental workout. In Europe, the person that’s on the right always has priority, that’s it.”

5. Guns aren’t quite as prevalent as they seem

“I thought I would see guns everywhere. Every Walmart would sell guns. However, they are more common than in Europe.”

6. Politics is in the American psyche, but it's not being talked about 24/7

Zu Beck noted that while she was surprised that she was constantly hearing conversations about politics, “the way you have regular conversations in the US heavily indicated one’s political leanings. Or, ya know, what giant sign they put on their fence."

7. Good American food exists…if you’re willing to pay a little extra

According to zu Beck, America has both the best and the worst food. Quality food could certainly be found, at a higher price point, at places like Whole Foods. However, it's worth noting that zu Beck also follows a “mostly vegan diet.” The odds of finding quality vegan food is probably even harder than for most of us omnivores.

8. Montana, Wyoming, and Central Nevada are awesome

“So much nature, space and beauty,” recalls zu Beck, noting that these were her favorite places to see.

9. Yellowstone National Park, on the other hand…not so much

Zu beck likened it to a “massive glorified parking lot” and “nature Disney-fied,” though she also recognized she went during a peak tourist time.

10. It makes sense now why so many Americans don’t travel

According to zu Beck, many Europeans make fun of Americans for not being cultured and well-traveled. But after seeing the “sheer diversity of the country” she gets it now. There’s already so much to see here in our own backyard.

11. She would “1000%” live here

“Some people love it. Some people hate it, [but] to me the United States is the most beautiful country in the world. It really is.”

Down in the comments, Americans shared how touching it was to hear zu Beck’s overall positive assessment.

“It’s so refreshing to hear foreigners say they love my home.”

“I just want to say thank you for such kind words. We have issues in our country for sure and we often times only hear the negative from other countries but what you said was absolutely a breathe of fresh air. Thank you.”

“As an American, sometimes we can get so focused on all of the negatives that we see in the country...it is so refreshing to have an outsider's view. I have been fortunate enough to have lived, traveled and worked in many other countries, and when I come back to the States I am re-astonished by its sheer beauty and amazing cultural diversity. Thanks for the reminder,.”

“As an American, it was refreshing to hear an unbiased view from an open-minded European about your experiences without just being the usual slam of the negatives. America definitely has a unique culture (outside of the big cities) and there's plenty of beauty if you actually travel through our beautiful nation without just looking for the usual negatives pushed through mainstream news and the ‘haters.’ Thank you!”

Zu Beck's takeaway isn't that America is perfect—far from it. But in her eyes, it’s still one of the most beautiful, surprising, and welcoming places she’s ever been. That alone feels like something many of us need to hear right now.

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17 Great Depression recipes people still cook today during hard times

These recipes are resourceful and delicious.

great depression, the great depression, great depression recipes, great depression food, great depression recipe
Lewis Wickes Hine/Library of Congress, Dorothea Lange/Wikipedia

Recipes from the Great Depression to make today.

The Great Depression, which lasted from 1929-1939, caused economic turmoil worldwide. Families struggled to feed themselves, and went to extreme lengths to stretch food and utilize all available ingredients.

Known as the Greatest Generation (those born between 1901 and 1927), their resourcefulness resulted in a number of creative (and delicious) recipes that remain relevant today. Home chefs and bakers shared their Great Depression recipes on Reddit that have been passed down and are still enjoyed today to help others get inventive and save money.

From soups and stews to cakes, these are 17 Great Depression recipes to try.

- YouTube www.youtube.com

Soups, Stews and More

Beef and Noodles

"My grandmas go to: Bag of egg noodles 1 can of creamed corn 1 can Campbells chicken noodle soup 1 lb ground beef. Salt and pepper to taste. Brown ground beef, add all other ingredients, add enough water or light chicken stock to cover noodles if needed. Bring to boil, and reduce to a simmer for about 15 minutes, take off the heat and let it rest 10 minutes before serving with buttered white bread. I still make this to this day. My kids loved it too. Basically homemade Hamburger Helper." - -__Doc__-

Hoover Stew

Ingredients

1 box noodles
A can of tomatoes
1 package of hot dogs, or 1 can of sausage or meat
A can of corn, peas or beans
2-4 cups water

Instructions

"Mix all ingredients together in a pot until boiling. Then simmer for 15-20 minutes until the noodles are tender. If you have aromatics, onion and garlic would be a great addition. If not, the recipe is great as is." - Josuaross54

Zaprezna soup

"Depression soup... make a roux, add salt pepper and caraway seeds. Add water to make a thick soup texture. Use an egg or two mixed with flour and salt pepper and mix together to make dumplings.. drop into the soup to cook.. This was called zaprezna soup or depression soup. We ate it often in the 60's after my dad abandoned us. Money was short but this soup was good." - User Unknown

Chipped Beef On Toast

Ingredients

8 oz. dried beef jerky
2 tbsp butter or oil
4 tbsp flour
4 cups milk
Salt and pepper to taste
Sliced homemade bread, for serving

Instructions

"Add jerky and oil to a pan over medium heat. Cook until the meat softens, about 3-4 minutes. Stir in your flour and cook for 1-2 minutes. Add milk and bring to a low boil. Allow sauce to thicken for up to 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper if you have it. Serve over homemade bread, toasted if desired." - Josuaross54

Rivel Soup

"In Ohio…My mom would cook Rivel Soup when I was a kid in 80s and 90s. She still makes it. It’s milk based with flour dough balls in it. I hate it. Sometimes they would fry potatoes and put them in the soup." - Vegetable_Record_855

Potato Soup

Ingredients

4 large potatoes, peeled and sliced (or 2 cans of potatoes)
2 garlic cloves, chopped
One carrot, sliced
A can of meat, sausage, or hot dogs (optional)
3 cups water or stock
3 cups milk
Any herbs you have on-hand
Salt to taste

Instructions

"Slice all your potatoes, garlic, and carrots. Add to a soup pot with the meat, water, and milk. Bring to a boil and reduce the heat, keeping the mix at a low simmer. Then, cook for 30 minutes until all veggies are tender. Add herbs and salt, if using. Serve hot." - Josuaross54

Tuna Fish Stew

"My mother's family always made tuna fish stew. It is celery, potatoes, canned tuna fish, milk, and hard boiled eggs. Sautee the celery until half way cooked, throw in some chopped potatoes and water. Cook until the potatoes are done. Thin the stew with some milk. Throw in chopped hard boil eggs. Salt and pepper to taste Serve over stale bread. It was cheap, quick, and really filling." - RoseNoire4

@foodwanderer

Great Depression Cooking Recipe #greatdepression #recipe #cooking #frugalmeals #cookingonabudget #nostalgia #friedpotatoes #hotdogs #foodwanderer #tastetest #SplashSummerVibe

Sides

Baked Beans

Ingredients

1 package soaked dried beans, or 2 cans of beans
One tomato, chopped
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 tbsp lard
Two tbsp molasses
One cup water

Instructions
"Soak your beans, if using dried, overnight and drain the liquid. Prepare your veggies by chopping. Omit any vegetable that you do not have on-hand. Add lard to a stock pot and cook your vegetables until tender. Add the beans, molasses, and water. Cook all together with a lid on for 2-3 hours or until the beans have your desired consistency. Add more water if needed.

Milk Potatoes

"Milk potatoes. Fry sliced potatoes with salt, pepper and a bit of onion until almost done. Pour milk over potatoes and simmer until potatoes are cooked through." - kms811•6y ago

Ash Cakes

"Ash cakes got their name because different renditions are cooked in the hot white ash of your campfire. These are only 3 ingredients but are filling and have a great texture.

Ingredients

½ cup cornmeal
1 cup meat stock or water
2 tbsp lard or grease

Instructions
Mix both ingredients together in a bowl and allow to sit overnight to hydrate the cornmeal. Pat into a bread pan and refrigerate or add to your cool storage before allowing to set up. The next day, slice into 1-inch slices and fry in melted lard. Serve hot and crispy." - Josuaross54

Sweets

Potato Donuts

"Potato donuts 🍩 from depression era cooking with Dylan Hollis." - BainbridgeBorn

Wacky Cake

"If you have interest in baking, make a wacky cake. It’s a chocolate cake that has no milk, butter, or eggs, because those items were scarce during the Depression, but it is so good! The recipe I linked has more steps, but I’ve known a lot of people to literally just dump and mix everything in the baking dish." - gwhite81218

@bdylanhollis

The cake without butter, eggs or milk #baking #vintage #cooking #cake

Rice Pudding

Ingredients

1 cup rice
2 cups milk
2 tbsp butter
3 tbsp honey, maple syrup, or molasses
Pinch of cinnamon

"Combine all ingredients in a small saucepan and cook over low heat, about 20 minutes, stirring frequently. Taste for doneness and cook an additional 5 minutes, tasting until desired consistency. Serve warm." - Josuaross54

Tomato Soup Cake

"Tomato soup cake." - AxelCanin

Water Pie

"Water pie 😋😍." - AxelCanin

Mock Apple Pie

"There was a thing for 'apple' pie made with Ritz crackers my grandmother made some time ago (she was born 1901 so def Depression life).https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/9545/mock-apple-pie/ That recipe looks more complicated than the one grandma made, but there are a number of recipes online for it, including one made by Ritz, on the box." - User Unknown

Hard Time Pudding

"Batter: 1 cup flour
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup raisins (Optional, I hate them)
3 tsp Baking powder
1/2 cup water
Syrup: 1 1/2 cup Brown sugar
1 TBSP. butter/marg.
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 - 2 cup water

Mix together flour, sugar, raisins, Baking powder, and water. Pour into a baking dish. In a sauce pan combine brown sugar, butter, water bring to boil then add vanilla and pour over the batter. Bake at 300 º for 1/2 hour." - MsBean18

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Rainn Wilson's new creative tool for exploring spirituality is refreshingly inclusive

It takes you on a deeply comprehensive and delightfully creative spiritual journey, no matter your faith background or belief.

soul boom, rainn wilson, spirituality, spiritual workbook, faith and religion
Courtesy of Soul Boom/Instagram

The Soul Boom Workbook is deeply comprehensive and delightfully creative.

Sometimes the best things come from the most unexpected of places. Like, who would imagine a comedic actor who played the iconic beet-farming paper salesman Dwight Schrute on The Office would come up with a creative tool to help people explore their own spirituality?

Rainn Wilson isn't exactly new to talking about the soul. He co-founded the Soul Pancake media company in 2009, spent years having philosophical discussions in his Metaphysical Milkshake series, wrote a whole book during the pandemic about the need for a global "spiritual revolution," and created his current Soul Boom Podcast out of that book in which he interviews all kinds of people from all faiths and spiritual paths to have meaningful conversations.

But his newest offering feels different. Instead of giving us something to consume and then reflect on, his Soul Boom Workbook: Spiritual Tools for Modern Living is a hands-on, interactive, deeply comprehensive, delightfully creative tool to help us personally explore our own spirituality and figure out how our own spiritual transformation can also transform the world.

Wilson tells Upworthy that the idea for the workbook was born out of the response to the Soul Boom book. "When I, a former sitcom actor, decided to write a book about spirituality, there were a lot of question marks," he says. "Would people respond? Would they like it? Would they laugh me out of Hollywood?"

However, the response to the New York Times bestseller was "overwhelmingly positive."

"People seem to be hungry for spiritual paths and wisdom more and more as various systems start to unravel," Wilson says. "The response was so strong. And part of it was like, 'Well, what do we do if we want a spiritual revolution? If we want to find a spiritual path, and truth, and harness the kind of ancient wisdom traditions from the world's great faith traditions on our journey forward?' And that's when the idea of a Soul Boom workbook was born."

soul boom, rainn wilson, spirituality, spiritual workbook, faith and religion Soul Boom Workbook: Spiritual Tools for Modern LivingScreenshots courtesy of Rainn Wilson

Wilson and his co-creator, Shabnam Mogharabi, wanted to create an interactive place for a person to take a spiritual journey, either by themselves or with others in their lives who are interested in connecting on a deeper level. They also wanted it to connect spirituality and creativity.

"We wanted to give people an experience that I had years ago when I did The Artist's Way," Wilson explains. "That was a really important book for me, and it has been for dozens of people that I know. This classic workbook about creativity, which also has spiritual elements in it, has been revolutionary. It has sold millions of copies and allowed people to kind of undertake a creative journey that they didn't know was possible."

soul boom, rainn wilson, spirituality, spiritual workbook, faith and religion The workbook includes all kinds of activities designed to get you reflecting on all aspects of spirituality.Screenshots courtesy of Rainn Wilson

The workbook includes drawings, essays, reflective writing exercises, doodles, games—there's even section where you create a stand-up comedy act. Whatever you imagine a "spiritual workbook" might be, this is likely more. Tackling concepts like God ("The Notorious G.O.D."), faith and religion, meditation and prayer, values and morals, tests and difficulties, death and dying, creating community and a better world, and more, the Soul Boom Workbook is incredibly comprehensive. And it feels unique in that anyone from any background or belief, no matter how devout or skeptical, can utilize it to explore what they find divine or sacred, what parts of their beliefs might need to be challenged or "excavated," and how they can contribute to building a better world.

The "guy who played Dwight" may seem like an unlikely source of spiritual wisdom, but thankfully, Wilson doesn't claim to be that at all. He is not a guru offering enlightenment or an academic pontificating on the meaning of existence; he's simply someone who has run the spiritual seeker gauntlet himself, who has a deep and abiding interest in exploring this stuff, and who offers a refreshingly down-to-earth, accessible, and inclusive way of talking about it all.

Wilson says his favorite thing about the workbook is how it starts off intensely personally but then takes you on a journey that expands and expands into exploring how you can apply your spiritual "superpowers" to create a more just, kind, and loving world. Ultimately, it's all about exploring spiritual tools for personal and social transformation.

"I would love it if someone started the workbook in a certain place and finished it at a very different place, and that it actually affected their lives in a transformational way," Wilson says. "Could you do a book, and by the end of it be a different person? Or at least see the world in a slightly different way at the end of this process?"

You can find Soul Boom Workbook: Spiritual Tools for Modern Living here.


As a participant in the Amazon Associates affiliate program, Upworthy may earn proceeds from items purchased that are linked to this article, at no additional cost to you.

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Here's why the world's strangest traffic light in Japan only turns green one day a year

Everyone waits until a special day in May, when it finally turns green.

himakajima stoplight, traffic light, street corner, octopus, japan, japanese island
via Flickr

The Himakajima traffic light.

The island of Himakajima, a few dozen kilometers south of Nagoya in between Ise Bay and Mikawa Bay, Japan, is home to around 2,000 residents. It’s best known for its picturesque beaches and local delicacy, octopus. The dish is so famous in the town that it even has cute pictures of it emblazoned on its manhole covers. Himakajima is also known for its one stoplight that blinks yellow for 364.25 days of the year.

Himakajima doesn’t really need any stoplights because the tiny island sees very little foot or car traffic. However, the children who grow up on the island may not live there forever; many will grow up to attend schools or find jobs on the mainland. So it’s important that they know how to cross a street with a traffic light, or they could get seriously injured.

The Himakajima traffic light

In 1994, at the request of the local Himaka Traffic Safety Association, stoplights were installed on the east side of the island so the town’s children could practice crossing the street like they would in a big city. The light blinks yellow most of the time, so when it becomes fully operational, it’s a real event in the city.

- YouTube youtu.be

Every year in May, the town’s teachers, children, parents, and officials gather near its East Port and the stoplight becomes fully operational, cycling through red, yellow, and green lights.

Last year, on May 21, the kids congregated at the light and practiced looking left, right, and left again before crossing the street. To be extra sure that other pedestrians and motorists know they are crossing, they hold their hands high in the air so they’re sure to be seen.

According to SoraNews24, one girl told reporters that things got “tricky” when she was walking her bike across the zebra strips and the light turned red. It goes to show that kids need to know not only when to walk but also how quickly to do so.

The annual children’s crossing has become so popular that people planning to visit the island often hunt online to catch wind of when the stoplight will be fully operational. After the special day, the light reverts to its blinking yellow state, encouraging everyone to proceed with caution until sometime the next May.

himakajima stoplight, traffic light, street corner, octopus, japan, japanese island The Himakajima traffic light.via Google Maps

The official Green Light Day in Himakajima is a beautiful example of how, even in the smallest of communities, parents and teachers find a way to help their children prepare for the real world. It’s a testament to the community's importance of safety and learning through real-life experience. A lesson in class where the teacher holds up a red or green light sign may give kids a vague notion of how to cross the street in a big city, but getting to travel to see the real light and trying to judge how quickly to move across the street is a lesson the kids will never forget.

Further, for the vast majority of us who live in towns where streetlights are commonplace, it’s refreshing to see a community gather around something that we take for granted.

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