There's never been a better time to feel like a kid again. For as long as there have been mortgages, taxes, jobs, and speeding tickets, there have been adults who wish they could turn back the clock to simpler times. That's nothing new. But nostalgia has recently gone next-level.If you want, you can now go away to adult summer camp, where you'll leave all technology at the entrance and enjoy four days of archery, tie-dye, and hiking. You can also spend a day at adult preschool, where you'll do arts and crafts, play games, and reconnect with your favorite childhood buddy: nap time.Coloring books, though, are by far the most popular kids' activity for grown-ups. And it's not hard to see why. Just imagine your favorite coloring book as a kid, only updated to reflect your much-improved motor skills and worldliness. Wouldn't it be nice to take an hour with a cup of coffee and get lost in a sea of possibility and imagination? If you did, it might look something like this. Jenni Whalen/UpworthyBeautiful, isn't it? So beautiful, in fact, that crotchety, jaded adults all over the world are dusting off their crayons and giving it a try.Coloring books have been picking up popularity for close to a decade now. They had a big moment in 2016 before dying down again, and now thanks to TikTok, interest in adult coloring is absolutely exploding.What's new is that it's easier than ever to find a community based around a mutual love of coloring. #ColoringTok on TikTok is full of million-plus view videos of people showing off their amazing creations and tools. A subreddit dedicated to adult coloring currently features over 50,000 members. It's a solo activity meant to calm your body and mind, but it adds a little something extra when you're able to share what you've made with the world. @amandlnee Have a good night ??✨ @bobbiegoods coloring book @Ohuhuart markers • #coloring #coloringtherapy #coloriage #cutecoloring #amsrcoloring #ohuhumarkers #coloringbook #bobbiegoodscoloringbook #bobbiegoods #cozycoloring #colorwithme #relax These books are selling at breakneck pace. Publishers are even having trouble keeping them in stock. The book that started the craze, "Secret Garden: An Inky Treasure Hunt and Coloring Book," has sold over 2 million copies worldwide since its release in 2013. Jenni Whalen/UpworthyAnd there are many more like it burning up the bestseller lists. "We've never seen a phenomenon like it in our thirty years of publishing. ... We just can't keep them in print fast enough," Lesley O'Mara, managing director of Michael O'Mara Books, told The New Yorker. It doesn't look like this coloring book train is slowing down any time soon, so here are three reasons you need to get on board.1. A good coloring session can relieve stress and anxiety. Jenni Whalen/UpworthyThere might be more to this whole coloring thing than just feeling like a kid. Marti Faist, an art therapist, told the Baltimore Sun, "When someone is coloring, their mind and body are operating in a more integrated way. It's almost a meditative process." "I've watched people under acute stress, almost panic-attack levels, color and have their blood pressure go down very quickly. It's cathartic for them." And Marti's not the only one. Maybe you've heard of a guy named Carl Jung? Jung was a big fan of art therapy, and he used coloring as a relaxation technique back in the early 1900s. He even believed that the colors his patients chose reflected an expression of deeper parts of their psyche. Jung himself actually used to draw and color mandalas, or spiritual geometric shapes, every morning. These same mandalas are the foundation of a lot of the most popular stress-relieving coloring books today.2. No paper? No problem. Now, you can color on the go. Photo and digital coloring skills by Heather Kumar/Twitter.You know the rule: It's not an official craze unless it's integrated into social media. So, as appealing as drawing at your kitchen table for hours on end sounds, you can now color on your smartphone or tablet with just a few swipes of your finger, and you can easily tweet or Instagram your creations, too. Colorfy, the most popular coloring app on the market, has been a huge hit with the mobile crowd, pulling in over 300,000 reviews on iTunes (it's also on Android). A recent reviewer wrote: "This is a really great app. It lets me pass the time in a calming yet creative way." But maybe the best thing about a coloring app is that it's easy to erase your design, start over, and create something completely different.Exercising your creativity on your phone is lightyears better for your mental health than scrolling social media. 3. These coloring books are also hilarious. Photo and coloring skills by Clare Emily/Twitter.Coloring isn't just about the beautifully elaborate sketches like those found in "Secret Garden" and its follow-up, " Enchanted Forest."If you're more into some mindless fun, you might also enjoy coloring pictures of Ryan Gosling or iconic images from '90s pop culture! And, if you're a real free spirit, you might enjoy a, um, truly "adult" coloring book.(Just a suggestion: might not want to pull that one out in public.)Coloring a humorous coloring book will boost your mood, and again, is a great alternative to mindless scrolling in the evening which has been proven to exacerbate symptoms like depression and anxiety. Try it before bed for a better night's sleep!Whether you're coloring to relax or just to have some fun, there's a coloring book out there for you. Coloring might just become your favorite hobby ... again.Turns out, as a kid you had it right all along!This article originally appeared a year ago.

Being a brand new parent can be really hard. You're in a season that many people have been in before but it's impossible to fathom what it will be like until you're going through it yourself. That's because everyone is different. We all have different distress tolerances, different levels of assistance, different relationship dynamics and unsurprisingly exactly zero babies are exactly the same. Truly, even identical twins have completely different personalities which are often evident from the moment they're born. So no first time parent knows exactly what they're getting themselves into but thankfully, most figure it out. A good rule of thumb to remember is that it's your first time being a parent and it's also your baby's first time being a baby. You're learning together. That doesn't always help mitigate the overwhelm or very real emotional changes parents can feel, even dads. While there has been increased focus on supporting new moms in recognizing symptoms of baby blues and postpartum depression, there's not much attention paid to the changes new dads experience. One in ten men experience paternal postpartum depression and anxiety so it's important that we don't leave them out of the conversation on postpartum mental health. a man sitting on a bed holding a baby Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash This very well could be a possible reason this dad took to a parenting group desperately seeking advice for how to handle "hating being a new father."The anonymous father writes, "I have a three week old daughter. I feel so terrible - I just feel nothing for her. I'm finding it impossible to function without sleep. Everyone always talked about how you'll love every minute of it and how I need to 'treasure' these moments as I won't get them back - I just don't get it, what part of this is good? I have no life anymore. I have zero independence."He shares that he can't explain his feelings to his wife and would go back to his former life if he could before concluding, "I feel like an awful person... but... how was I to know this wasn't for me before I tried it?" woman holding baby beside man smiling Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash Oof! The level of guilt he feels is evident, but what's also evident is that even though he's feeling detached from his infant, he's still caring for her. From his own words people can see that he's doing his best to become a good father and trying to be a supportive partner. Normally in open parenting forums people would pile on the guilt by shaming a parent for feeling anything other than immense joy for your child at all times whether it's realistic or not. In this case it seems that fellow parents could hear the worry and desperation in his words, immediately rallying to offer supportive words and suggestions. One person writes, "Lack of sleep is an absolute killer.You need to see about sleeping in shifts so you both get a decent period of uninterrupted sleep. Take the baby out for a walk in the stroller. If it’s cold layer them up. You’re not a bad father, it’s a huge adjustment and it’s really hard with no sleep. But it also is what you make of it, so get outside and move your body and go for a beer or a coffee with a friend." Baby Nbc GIF by This Is Us Giphy A mom of two offers some solid validation, "You aren't awful. This sht is hard. It can take dads a lot longer to bond with babies. You've just got to fake it til you make it. Try to have skin to skin time with baby to give the chemical reaction in your brain a jumpstart. Just talking to the baby about what's happening around you can also help you feel a connection, just like it does when you meet a new person. Around the 2month mark things should start feeling more natural and like you're a part of things. 4month it goes to sht again due to sleep regression and then things can be a bit chaotic til around 8month when they start crawling or standing or walking even. You do look back on these days and think "wow I wish they were slower" but then you remember a poonami episode and are glad your kid is toilet trained. Try to hang in there. It does get better!" love and hip hop baby GIF by VH1 Giphy Another father relates to the struggle but encourages that things get easier, "When my child came, I had a hard time with the loss of my previous life. I was worried that I made the wrong decision in having a kiddo and thought to myself that I wasn’t meant to be a father. That lasted for a long time honestly. I did love my kiddo, but I wouldn’t say I was bonded with him for a long time. He is 8 now and I treasure the times that we have together, he is fun and infuriating and hilarious and clever and has no common sense. Yours will their own mixture of things, but you will come to love them.""Anyone who says you’ll love every minute of it is a damn liar and no one can change my mind," one mom writes in part before sharing further. "Having a child is a shocking life change. Your wife has a slight advantage in that her life change happened when she found out about the pregnancy, and so she’s had 8-10ish months to come to terms with it, while going through physical changes. Yours is mental and 3 weeks ago shit hit the fan. It’s ok to feel lost. Imagine if someone you were close to had died - you wouldn’t be any less shocked in 3 weeks. Give yourself some time and make sure you do bond with your baby by simply holding them and talking to them." man in white crew neck t-shirt with tattoo on arm Photo by Devon Divine on Unsplash The amount of validation and nonjudgmental support is heartwarming. Hopefully the new dad feels the level of support offered by others and knows that while it can be a hard adjustment that he can always reach out to others for support. If he or any other new father recognizes that they may be struggling with symptoms of paternal postpartum depression, support is available through therapy or the Postpartum Support International HelpLine.

It's been over 20 years since Alan Rickman broke Emma Thompson's heart by buying that little office tart a necklace in "Love Actually," and some of us still haven't forgiven him. With its overlapping love stories set during Christmastime, the film has become a holiday classic, despite some controversy on whether or not it's actually any good. Some people love it, some people hate it, but no one can deny that Thompson gives an Oscar-worthy performance in one utterly heart-wrecking scene. Of the eight "Love Actually" relationships, Harry and Karen (Rickman and Thompson, respectively) is the one that gives the film some serious gravitas. While other characters are pining or shooting their shot with varying levels of success, Harry is pulling a mid-life crisis affair with a modelesque coworker while Karen shuffles their children to and fro and keeps Harry's life running smoothly. We see him lie, we see her start to suspect, but the scene where she opens her Christmas present from Harry—a Joni Mitchell CD, not the necklace she had found hidden in his coat and thought was for her—is when we see Thompson's acting strengths in full view. Like, phew. - YouTube www.youtube.com What's so striking about the scene, however, is that it's not dramatic in a typical way. There's no external conflict happening—it's just Thompson excusing herself from the family to emotionally process what she's just discovered in secret. We see and feel her heartbreak—it's so visceral—but that's not what makes the scene so powerful. Heartbreak happens all the time in movies. As Thompson explains in an interview with BBC Radio 1, it's the fact that she can't actually react the way she wants to that pulls at people's heartstrings so hard. "I think it's just because everybody's been through something like it," Thompson says. "What I think really gets to them though is that she has to pull herself together. It's not that she's upset. That's, you know, ten a penny. But it's that she has to pull herself together." - YouTube www.youtube.com It's true. The conflict in the scene is between her wanting to break down and her wanting to keep her family's Christmas memories happy and intact. She is a devastated wife, but she's also a devoted mother who doesn't want to devastate her kids. We feel the tension between those two roles and the way she swallows up her grief in order to get her kids to their holiday concert right after finding out her marriage isn't what she thought it was. "I think it’s to do with the fact that we’re required in our lives to repress the things that we’re feeling," Thompson explained on TODAY. "So, you can be hit right between the eyes with some terrible piece of news, but you can’t react immediately because you’ve got your children there. It’s that thing of not showing — that’s why it hurts. That’s why it moves us.""If she went, 'Oh my God! I thought you were going to give me a necklace! And now you've given it to somebody else,' we would not be moved, you know?" she continued. "We're moved because she just goes, 'I'm not gonna do it.' And then she makes the bed, the bed that sort of suddenly feels so empty of meaning. And then she goes down and goes, 'Hello, everyone! Let's go.' That's why people identify."And the way she plays it is perfect. Any actor can cry, but it's her crying while trying not to cry and how she shows us her inner emotional turmoil without her ever saying a single word that's impressive.If you've never seen "Love Actually" and want to see the Harry and Karen story, here are just their scenes. - YouTube www.youtube.com Some people have asked whether Harry actually physically cheated or not, but "Love Actually" script editor Emma Freud clarified that he did. "DEFINITELY had an affair," she wrote on X in 2015. "I begged richard just to make it a flirtation, but no. the whole way."And did Harry and Karen stay together in the end? The film doesn't really make it clear, but at the screening Freud answered the question: “They stay together but home isn’t as happy as it once was.” Oof. There's just no non-heartbreaking answer to that question.This is why we watch films, though, isn't it? To see our humanity reflected back to us? To feel what the characters feel? To have our hearts broken vicariously so we can have a good cry without going through the actual pain ourselves? People usually watch romcoms for the romance and comedy and happy endings, though. So here's to Emma Thompson and Alan Rickman for giving us one of the most poignant scenes in cinema in one of the most unexpected places.

Giving it all up and retiring to live on a cruise ship at 32 seems like a lifestyle choice only available to the ultra-wealthy. However, two financially savvy retired school teachers from Tennessee have managed to do just that, spending under $10,000 for the first eight months at sea.Monica Brzoska, 32, and Jorrell Conley, 36, met in 2015 while teaching in Memphis, Tennessee. The following year, they booked a week-long cruise to Mexico, Belize, and Grand Cayman. After that, they were hooked on cruising together.Eight years later, in March 2023, they booked a week-long Caribbean cruise. When it was over, instead of returning home to Memphis, they had a wild idea: Why not continue to book consecutive cruises? So, they did just that.Monica was inspired to start living the life she always wanted after her father fell ill and her mother told her: "Don't wait for retirement. Follow your dreams." View this post on Instagram A post shared by Monica Brzoska (@life_by_any_means)The couple crunched the numbers and found that if they chose the cheapest cabins and used the deals they’ve received from Carnival Cruises, they could book the first 8 months for just under $10,000. “It sounds mad, but the numbers made sense. Accommodation, food and entertainment would be included – we’d only need spending money,” Brzoska told The Sun. “And because we’d been on so many Carnival cruises, we’d earned access to some amazing offers.”Hopping from ship to ship isn’t difficult for the couple because many disembark from the same ports. But they sometimes have to fly when they can’t walk to the next ocean liner. The couple then quit their jobs, sold their possessions, and started a new life on the high seas. They rent out their 3-bedroom home in Memphis to maintain steady cash flow. The average 3-bedroom home in the area rents somewhere between $1200 to $1900 a month. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Monica Brzoska (@life_by_any_means)Over the first year of their new life, the couple completed 36 consecutive cruises. They have already visited countless destinations across the globe, but they can’t choose a favorite. "For a cultural experience, we loved Japan," Brzoska told a Carnival Cruise director on Instagram. The couple also loved Greece for its “history” and Iceland because it was the "closest to being on Mars."One of the most incredible benefits of loving on a cruise ship is that so many things are taken care of for you. The couple never has to cook any meals, do any laundry or drive. Every night, there is something to do, whether it’s checking out a comedy show or enjoying drinks and dancing in the nightclub. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Monica Brzoska (@life_by_any_means)Plus, on cruises, just about all the costs are covered, so you rarely have to open your wallet. It’s a stress-free, all-inclusive lifestyle. Brzoska says that when you remove the everyday stresses from life, it’s great for your marriage. “Without the daily stresses of life, we rarely argued, but always told each other if we needed space or more time together,” she said.The couple also makes sure to have one date night a week, during which they dress up and have a nice meal together.Most people may be unable to give it all up and live their lives hopping from ocean liner to ocean liner. But there’s a great lesson in the story of Brzoska and Conley: You never know how much time you have left, so don’t wait for retirement to live the life of your dreams. Upworthy has reached out to Brzoska for comment and is still awaiting a response. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Monica Brzoska (@life_by_any_means)This article originally appeared in August.

We've all seen people posting videos of them dancing in a very public place, in the middle of a busy sidewalk or train station. Usually people watch the free show and go on about their day but one dancer got a surprise when he set his camera up in a subway station–a bystander jumped in.J. Dash uploaded a video on Instagram of him dancing to "Wop," a popular song that has fairly specific choreography, though Dash was adding his own spin. When the stranger jumped into the video it was so seamless that people in the comments are arguing over if it was staged or not. People are asking how the stranger knew the dance moves and the answer is pretty simple, TikTok."Wop" made its rounds as a viral TikTok sound that came with the choreography that was seemingly on an endless loop with every swipe. So it's quite likely someone out in the wild also knows the dance."Yeah right, and he knew exactly the choreography and where to stand to be seen on the background," one person disputes."Honestly this is dope. I believed it for a second! And their acting/performance skills are on point. Can’t knock them for that! Let people have some joy," another person says seemingly questioning if it was planned but enjoying it nonetheless. The video, whether it's staged or not is still one that will put a smile on your face and of course not everyone thought the smooth choreography was a set up. One person says, "Random dude timed it perfectly...even missed the train.""Freaking love this. Ultimate connection through music and dance - there’s nothing like it a shared musical experience is everything," another gushes. You can watch the surprise dance duo below: See on Instagram This article originally appeared in January.

Upworthy has covered a few stories about people who decided to live permanently on cruise ships because it's cheaper than living on land or in a nursing home. These stories have connected with millions because they say a lot about the modern cost of living but are also aspirational.Christine Kesteloo has become popular on TikTok with over 680,000 followers because she shares what living on a cruise ship is really like. Kesteloo is the wife of the ship’s Staff Chief Engineer, so she gets to live on the boat for free. She only has to pay for alcohol and soda, which she gets for half off.“I live on a cruise ship for half the year with my husband, and it's often as glamorous as it sounds,” she told Insider. “After all, I don't cook, clean, make my bed, do laundry or pay for food.“Kesteloo’s life seems pretty stress-free. After all, she's basically on a permanent vacation. However, even though she lives on a cruise ship as a “wife on board,” there are a few things she either can’t or shouldn’t do.She shared these four things in a TikTok video with nearly 10 million views. @dutchworld_americangirl I go through four things I can, and cannot do it while living on the cruise ship with my husband #weliveonacruiseship #4things #alaskacruise #cruiseship #cruiseshiplife #cruise #alaska #caribbeancruise #cruiselife #livingstsea #getreadywithme 1. No gambling Kesteloo says she cannot sit at a slot machine and “play my heart out until I win.” She believes it would “look a little weird if I, as the wife of the staff chief engineer, won a big jackpot.” 2. Can’t leave the ship with the guests When the ship arrives at a destination, she can't get off with the guests. She must wait about an hour and exit the vessel with the crew. When returning to the ship, she also has to be on time. “No, they will not wait for us,” she says. And the same goes for her husband, if they “miss the ship, someone else will take over the role.” 3. Sit in a crowded pool Although Kesteloo has access to the pool, gym, and all the ship’s amenities, she’s cautious not to interfere with the guests' good time. She’ll exit the pool if it’s busy because “it’s just the right thing to do.” 4. Must have international traveler insurance She must have insurance in case of a misfortune on the ship. But as a citizen of the Netherlands, they already have coverage and just have to pay a few extra dollars a month. Some of the most popular commenters on the video were from women regretting that they married men who aren’t chief engineers on cruise ships or those who want to know where to find a single one. "OK, can you explain how to marry a cruise ship engineer?" one female commentator wrote. "How. in. the. H E double hockey sticks do I become the wife of a cruise ship engineer???? I don’t have to work AND cruise for free!" Cute_n_catchy added. "Does he have any single friends with same job??? Asking for me." Hannah LaCaze asked. This article originally appeared last year.

Sure, it’s lovely to see pristine, perfectly curated homes that look like they belong in Architectural Digest. A little inspo never hurt anyone. But as we all know, the spotless life is simply not an achievable reality, especially for those with busy lives and limited budgets (read: most of us). But you know what? Maybe even the messy homes deserve some love. The ones with constant junk piles and unfinished projects and dirty dishes and misplaced toys. The homes that will never grace the cover of a magazine but still do a wonderful job of containing all the moments life has to offer—the big, small, extraordinary, mundane and everywhere in between. Cause at the end of the day, isn’t that a home’s true purpose anyway?Stephanie Murphy, a mom and TikTok creator, seems to think so. Murphy recently took viewers on an “average house tour,” and it was the exact opposite of aspirational.Highlighted in Murphy’s tour are the pantry door that’s remained unpainted for three years, blinds held together with binder clips, air conditioners held in place by duct tape, a full dish rack tray that’s “a permanent fixture” on their countertops, and not one but two junk drawers (honestly, that’s a little low by my count). @steph_murphy Lets normalize “average” because there is nothing wrong with it. Everywhere you look on social media you see big gorgeous houses in perfect condition and its hard not to compare yours to them. But its not the norm and half the time its staged. Our house is lived in, and its filled with love and tons of memories and at the end of the day thats all that matters. ♬ vampire - Olivia Rodrigo You’ll also notice a fridge that is covered in her kid’s artwork and school pictures. Not in any cohesive way, but merely thrown on randomly, as nature intended. Meanwhile, in the master bedroom, Murphy and her husband’s bed have two separate blankets because neither of them like to share. A genius idea, and just another example of how we really, really don’t need to continue with marital sleeping norms that don’t actually feel comfortable. Another way is possible!As for why Murphy decided to showcase her “average, middle-class house,” it’s all in the caption of her video:“Let’s normalize ‘average’ because there is nothing wrong with it. Everywhere you look on social media, you see big gorgeous houses in perfect condition and it’s hard not to compare yours to them. But it’s not the norm and half the time it's staged. Our house is lived in, and it’s filled with love and tons of memories and at the end of the day that's all that matters."Judging from the comments sections of this now-viral post, it seems like other people are ready for more average content.“This is awesome!” one person wrote. “I’m constantly feeling inadequate when people have a perfect house that looks like nobody lives there!” “I feel seen,” added another. Hear, hear. No need to feel inadequate about having a home that’s lived in. Imperfection has its own kind of beauty. This article originally appeared last year.

South West News Service reports that when Sharaine, 32, and Wilson Caraballo, 42, moved their family of seven into a new home in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, last year, they weren’t sure how they’d be received. "Our biggest fear moving into a new neighborhood was, 'What if our neighbors don't like us?' What if, because we have a lot of kids, they make a lot of noise and we come from a big family, so what if there's any conflict with the neighbors?" Sharaine told USA Today. "We're the only Black family in our neighborhood."But all that fear quickly dissipated when their new neighbor, Paul Callahan, 82, showed up with a ladder and offered to help the family spruce up their new home.“He was coming over with tools. He’d bring screwdrivers and teach Wilson how to fix up the garage, and Wilson followed all his advice,” Sharaine told South West News Service. The recently-widowed octogenarian soon became a fixture at the Caraballo house. Now, he stops by nearly every day and can always be found at the family’s cookouts.Callahan has become a great friend to the family’s children, whom he entertains with stories from his past. "The kids run up to him like that's their grandfather," Sharaine said. "Paul is definitely a family member. He's no longer considered a neighbor."Callahan believes that it’s all about taking the time to be friendly."You get many chances to talk to people. If you don't take a chance, you may miss a friend," Callahan said. "It doesn't hurt to be nice. That's the other thing, it costs you nothing, but a lot of times, you get a better return."This article originally appeared last year.

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