Our children grow too fast
Article from: Herald Sun
http://tinyurl.com/33qh6o
Fay Burstin and Georgie Pilcher
March 24, 2008
CHILDHOOD today is basically over by the tender age of 11 as parents are
cutting short their children's days of innocence.
Research shows parents are cutting short their children's innocent ways
by letting them stay out late, drink alcohol, have *** and watch
inappropriate films before they turn 18.
A survey of almost 1200 British parents of children under 18 reveals a
growing gulf between the strict parental codes of previous generations
and today's more lenient mums and dads, who believe children are "young
adults" by 11.
Tired and time-poor parents admit buckling to "pester pressure" and
allowing their children a range of grown-up privileges they themselves
were denied as kids.
Girls, in particular, are growing up faster. They abandon their dolls by
age six and go on to dye their hair, pierce their ears and wear make-up.
Almost three-quarters of parents surveyed said they let their children
drink alcohol at home before they turned 18.
Just under half let their 16-year-olds stay the night at a boyfriend or
girlfriend's house.
The survey revealed 53 per cent of parents allowed kids under 16 to stay
out past 11pm, 35 per cent allowed under-12s to pierce their ears, 54
per cent let their daughters dye their hair and wear make-up by 14 and
57 per cent let children watch R-rated films before they were 18.
Almost three-quarters admitted their children had scant regard for their
authority and often rebelled.
And 72 per cent admitted they gave their children a far easier ride than
they were given, blaming higher disposable incomes for turning rare
treats into everyday purchases.
The survey, by Random House publishers, was commissioned to coincide
with this month's launch of popular children's author Jacqueline
Wilson's latest book.
Wilson, Britain's most borrowed author from libraries, said that
although many of her young characters were precocious, youngsters today
acted like adults at an "alarmingly early age".
"I know girls are desperate to look cool but I wish they didn't all want
to wear very high heels and inappropriately tight, trendy clothes,' she
said.
"I'm not saying all under-12s should wear puff-sleeved dresses and
little white socks and tee-strap sandals, as I had to in the '50s, but
at least you could run about and play properly in them."
A recent Australian Childhood Foundation re****t found almost one in five
Aussie kids believed they were growing up too fast, with 13 per cent
thinking they carried too much responsibility.
Foundation chief Joe Tucci said childhood was shrinking - and blamed the
surge in technology.
"Once upon a time parents could act much more as a filter and
interpreter for their kids, but these days the world is being beamed
directly into kids' lounge rooms and bedrooms," he said.
"Children are growing up as natives to technology that many parents
don't really understand and over which they struggle to enforce
boundaries."
Dr Tucci said the defining of tweens as a separate consumer group and
target for marketers was another threat to childhood.
And overtly ***ual music videos aimed at the tween market had a much
more sinister flow-on effect than flogging the latest pop singles.
"Kids have always dressed up in high heels and played with make-up, but
it used to be make-believe," he said.
"These days it's regarded as fa****on."
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rgds,
Pete
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'I'm not young enough to know everything' -Oscar Wilde
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