Popping Bubble Wrap and Licking The Bowl – The 50 Child-like Behaviours We All Hold On To

Popping bubble wrap, kicking piles of leaves and licking the bowl are all childhood behavioural habits we cannot help but indulge in as adults, it has been revealed. Other youthful urges included wheeling around on a shopping trolley, drawing faces on steamed up mirrors, not eating crusts and still saying ‘jinx’, were common for a fifth of all adults. Indulging in 'selfies', daydreaming and duvet days were other ways grown ups hark back to younger years. Unfortunately, results showed the age of 26 as the time in an adult's life where imagination dwindles and people felt they lost their ability to see things with a child-like eye. The top 50 child-like behaviours emerged in a poll of 2,000 adults conducted by Nick Jr. UK to mark the launch of brand-new children’s show Zack & Quack. Jacqueline Harding, Nick Jr. Child Development Expert, said: "Children have an innate capacity to be imaginative and it is only as we mature and face exposure to adult rules and regulations that imagination and creativity begins to wane. "Magical stories serve a child’s imagination and are invaluable to the development of solution–focused thinking. '"Children believe that challenges can be overcome and they are optimistic in their approach, so adults need to play in order to regain that child-like sense that anything is possible." A youthful two thirds of the adults asked felt they are still a big kid at heart with one in ten adults still jumping out on people to startle them. More than half of those studied said they regularly daydream, mostly about being very rich or happy, while a third of dreamers imagine a life lived in a big house and a fifth pretend they have superpowers. A resounding 86% thought it crucial to try and keep a good imagination as an adult and more than two thirds asked believed that having a good imagination makes you more creative. Sadly, age 26 is where most thought their imagination began to wane and they became less child-like in their thoughts. However, it is not all child’s play, as half of all adults believe that being more imaginative made them better at work. Picking up youthful trends was common in many an adult - a fifth regularly indulge in a ‘selfie’ and a third uses abbreviations like ‘lol’. One in four had photobombed by sticking their fingers behind an unsuspecting person’s head. Other ways in which adults hark back to their younger years were through dancing to music, spending time with young family members and indulging in the occasional duvet day. A grateful 90% of parents regularly re-live certain childhood moments through their children – with days out, watching programmes together and feeding the ducks among the most popular activities. And six in ten parents also felt it was important their child saw them being a bit silly from time to time. THE TOP 50 CHILD-LIKE BEHAVIOURS 1. Popping bubble wrap 2. Trampling through snow 3. Sticking fingers in cake mix/ lick the bowl 4. Kicking piles of leaves 5. Going on a swing 6. Watching kids' movies 7. Pulling silly faces 8. Building a snowman 9. Touching hot plates 10. Having a snowball fight 11. Prodding wet paint 12. Doodling in meetings 13. Running away from the sea when at the beach 14. Watching cartoons 15. Cracking through ice on puddles 16. Drawing smiley faces in the mirror 17. Playing with your hair 18. Jumping out and startling people 19. Blowing bubbles with chewing gum 20. Picking your nose 21. Being the first to push the button at a pedestrian crossing/lift 22. Wheeling around on a trolley in supermarket 23. Splashing in puddles 24. Running/skipping for no reason 25. Having a water fight 26. Saying 'jinx' when someone says the same thing as you at the same time 27. Drawing faces on celebrities' faces in magazines 28. Popping crisp packets 29. Blowing a blade of grass 30. Slurping through your straw 31. Dressing up in fancy dress 32. Swinging like a monkey on any bar that's around head height. 33. Doing handstands/cartwheels/snow angels 34. Repeating everything a friend says to annoy them 35. Shouting "shotgun" and running for the front seat in the car 36. Not eating crusts 37. Racing to be first at anything 38. Pretending to walk downstairs "to the cellar" when you're stood behind a counter 39. Drawing on car windscreens 40. Pretending the shopping trolley is a car/motorbike 41. Popping Fuchsias 42. Running through a sprinkler 43. Blowing bubbles in milk 44. Going to bed with a toy 45. Rolling down a hill 46. Dressing up animals 47. Sleeping with the light on 48. Stealing someone's hat 49. Leapfrogging bollards 50. Bum-sliding down banister