Times Square Through My Kids Eyes
Let me get this out of the way first: Times Square sucks! It is really just a giant, overstimulating, crowded, living advertisement.
I grew up an hour train ride from NYC and everyone locally knows you avoid Times Square at all costs. New York is incredible for many reasons, but mostly because it is the perfect quilt where every culture is stitched together into one giant work of art. You can find representation across countless races, languages, cultures, socio-economic statuses, interests, orientations, and everything else imaginable, simultaneously coexisting. It is something I did not appreciate enough or take advantage of when I lived nearby. But living in a place that lacks this variety in culture, I have grown to desire some of what New York City has to offer. This is what I would tell someone to take advantage of when going to NY. But instead we chose to go to Times Square and it was incredible.
On this trip a year and a half ago, I wasn’t planning the trip for me, but for my kids. On the way to Thanksgiving with Sarah’s family in Massachusetts, we had the opportunity to stay with my family in New Jersey and spend one day in the city with some of our friends (who used to teach our kids in Arkansas). Like many people, the kids’ knowledge was based on what they see in movies and on the internet, and they were so excited to go. They have grown up in a few different spots in the South, but have spent most of their youth in rural Arkansas. Far, far from any type of cultural epicenter.
My plan was simple. They want to go to New York City. Not museums. Not a festival of some kind. Not a show. Not a historic tour. They wanted to go to the New York City that existed in their mind, and I knew that meant Times Square. The New York that they would recognize from movies. And, more importantly, the New York that all their friends would recognize in the pictures they were sure to post on social media.
So we grabbed a train from NJ and headed to Penn Station. We met up with our friends and headed toward Times Square. As the crowd thickened, the kids’ excitement grew. I could tell because they always get louder and they stop saying complete thoughts or ideas. It is mainly just excited interjections or loud singular words that cause uproars of laughter. Then when we turned the corner and it was all in front of us, their eyes were racing back and forth. Immediately their phones were up and they were snapping pictures in all directions. At store fronts, at the strange characters, at the cars driving by, straight up to the tops of buildings, at each advertisement as it changed. It was non-stop, a true sign children are enjoying something. We headed to the middle for some pics, then they were ready to hit the souvenir shop. They each had a $20 bill my mom had given them earlier that morning burning in their pockets. About 15 minutes later, everyone had made slight wardrobe changes. They now looked like locals… because locals wear hoodies and hats completely covered in the letters N-Y-C, right?
Leaving Times Square was filled with even more indistinguishable loud noises and seemingly nonsense words that brought outbursts of laughter. The rest of the day we navigated the city by subway to check out Central Park and a few more of our friends’ favorite spots. For the rest of the afternoon, we were a thread in that great quilt of NYC, bumping elbows with a wider variety of people in the course of a few hours than one would in a year in our small community. I was happy my kids got to experience that, even if they would never describe it that way.
The whole day was so much fun, but the moment I loved most was when I got to experience it through my 4 kids’ eyes as I lay in bed that night. Like any good Gen Z-er, their entire experience was documented and posted to the internet. I looked at the photos of all the things that stood out to them: tall buildings, bright lights, famous landmarks, and all different types of characters. I knew it was far from the perfect day I would plan for myself, but it was one they would always remember and recount to their friends for years to come.
