London - Popping bubble wrap, kicking piles of leaves and licking the bowl are all childish habits that one in five of us just can't kick, a new study has found.
Other youthful urges that have proved hard to let go of include whizzing round the supermarket while clinging to a shopping trolley, drawing faces on steamed up mirrors, not eating crusts and saying “jinx”.
But although adults like to cling on to childish ways to have fun, most say their imagination and ability to see things with a child-like eye dwindles by the age of 26.
Nevertheless, a youthful two thirds of adults said they still feel like a big kid at heart with one in 10 admitting to indulging in Home Alone style pranks such as 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 percent thought it crucial to try and remain imaginative as an adult while more than two thirds believe that having a good imagination makes you more creative.
However, it's not all child’s play, as half said that being more imaginative made them better at work.
Others said they adopted additional youthful habits as an adult, with a fifth admitting to picking up slang phrases such as “selfie” while a third indulged in text speak, using abbreviations such as “lol”.
An adventurous one in four even confessed to photobombing others by sticking their fingers up 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 percent of parents regularly relive certain childhood moments through their children, with days out, watching programmes together and feeding the ducks among the most popular activities.
Six in 10 parents said that the benefits went two ways, saying that it's important for their children to see them being a bit silly from time to time.
The top 50 child-like behaviours emerged in a poll of 2 000 adults conducted by Nick Jr. UK to mark the launch of a new children’s show Zack & Quack.
Jacqueline Harding, a 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.” - Daily Mail
The top 50 childlike activities Brits like to indulge in
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 standing 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 banisters.