Why Our Kids Grow Up Too Quickly

The Bestie saved an article from our local news for me the other day. I tried to find a link to it but am forced instead to type the bleeding thing out! The marvels of modern technology still require the investment of a certain amount of time to find the 'time saving links' you desire!!

WHY OUR KIDS GROW UP TOO QUICKLY
by Nadine Williams
Adelaide Advertiser Tuesday March 4th 2008

She was lanky, lean and beautifully coiffed and made up. Her name is Maddison and she looked stunning indeed when she won the Face of Gold Coast Fashion Week last year. But when it was discovered this beauty was a child of twelve, the judges choice caused an outcry.

Welcome to 'fast track' childhood where the 'tween' years of 10,11,12 have blurred. Survey results published in Britain this week highlighted the disappearance of middle childhood, with claims the magic of being a child is over by 11. Parents, its seems, have succumbed to 'pester pressure' and allow their children an array of grown up privileges thrusting them unprepared into teenagehood.

Increasingly, youngsters can stay out late, drink alcohol and watch inappropriate films, and culture is wrenching childhood away from them.Little girls, in particular are growing up faster than ever. They abandon playing with dolls past the age of six and go on to pierce their ears, dye their hair and wear make-up.
Researchers for Britain's Random House publishers who surveyed 1170 parents with children under 18 found that 55 percent believed children were 'young adults' by age 11.

[section of statistics regarding numbers who allow them to do all the above mentioned things; omitted]

Almost three quarters admitted their children had scant regard for their authority and regularly acted against their will. Young Media Australia president Jane Roberts agrees the 'tween age' has become blurred and the marketers are creeping into childhood.

"We know the teenager is technically from 13, but realistically we know teenage now begins at 11-12," she says. "There is very little difference between the clothing ranges for under 13s and those for 13,14 and 15 year olds."
[section on the demons who corporatise children; omitted]
Television and the internet are key marketing tools in this operation. Add to this a quantum shift in both children's and adult's thinking which has seen parents drop the reins of responsibility and control over their children's lives.

But there is a more insidious threat to children's wellbeing. This is the first generation of children whose brain development is out of synch with their physical development, says Dr Michael Carr-Gregg a renowned Melbourne adolescent psychologist. "Their brains are only fully developed if they are females at age 23," he says.
[No mention here of any full development of male brains. An oversight perhaps?????]

....."We are letting young kids make decisions which would have been unheard of a generation ago....what time they go to bed, what foods they eat, what clothes they wear." ................
Dr Carr-Gregg looks beyond mere child oriented marketing to more fundamental shifts in culture and family values. "I think it is a breakdown of spirituality, tradition and ritual and also the current generation of parents have very little access to the previous generation, who had considerable wisdom to offer on how to be parents," he says.
(Arizaphale: not sure I agree with that)

The real issue is that parents are reluctant to set limits or boundaries for their children. "There is this need for parents to grab the reins," he says. If you cannot assert your authority on something as fundamental as bedtime, you might as well not have children."
(Arizaphale: Oh yes, Uh-huh!!)

He sees solutions in good parenting education and schools which reinforce values of respect and manners. "Increasingly, parents are seeking that from schools," he says.

No one wants a return to the authoritarian parenting of the 50s, but parents today are slipping into permissiveness," Dr Carr-Greg says.

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Well, I am pleased to see articles like this in the press rather than the ones which tell us how we have to alter life and society to suit the new generation of mobile phone and internet users. Generation Y needs new accommodations they would have us believe. :-( !!!!!!!

I fear I am preaching to a converted audience here but if even one person takes note of my passion at 'The Flaming Sword' and changes their practices and if they can apply some assertive parenting to their children NOW before they get to the teenage years, I will count my blogging time worthwhile.

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Meanwhile, back at the ranch, No2 Son has had an official driving lesson! The things 'picked up' by his instructor were many of the things I have been nagging about for the last few months (check your mirrors BEFORE you check your blind spot) and, amazingly, Father has now taken Son out for a driving lesson! I am quite sure that in this one lesson, all the things I have been unable to achieve in the last 6 months will be miraculously solved or cured. Chizz Chizz Chizz....

Am I churlish to resent the fact that my year long input will be brushed aside in favour of Dad's one lesson or the Instructor's paid lessons? I mean, it is important that he bond with dad over these 'male 'things isn't it? * harrumph*
I am but human dear reader :-)