Don't Blink! You Might Miss Your Childhood.

In the article “Kids Today Are Growing Up Way Too Fast” by Kay S. Hymowitz is about how the statistic in non-physical growth of kids has changed.  Kids have increasingly matured over the years. "The 12- to 14-year-olds of yesterday are the 10- to 12-'s of today," says Bruce Friend, Today by the time kids are12 years old they are describing themselves as being "flirtatious, sexy, trendy, athletic, and cool.”  Says The Nickelodeon-Yankelovicht Youth Monitor.  Things like brands and styles of clothes, perfume scents, and names of make-up.  These things are part of what is influencing the average child.  This gradual change is not just about fashion though, their is stage of life that most 15 year olds start going through.  “The rebellion stage” and now 7^th and 8^th graders are going through it.  They are about 3 years ahead of schedule on this.  Also the ages kids start getting into sexual activities is ridiculous!  Kids don’t realize the dangers of these things, most of them think of it as “just fooling around.”  I think the idea that it is ok to do things like this, comes from all the media, the song lyrics, the movies and the magazine headlines that tell us that “it’s ok”, and “who cares if its dangerous, it’s still fun.”   The sad thing is, kids believe it, and buy into, without giving it a second thought.  Just like the abuse of drugs and alcohol.  In the past ten years the statistics of 8^th graders that have smoked marijuana has doubled! The even worse part is they don’t find anything wrong with that either.  They don’t care that they could be fined thousands of dollars, or charged as a juvenile delinquent.  They don’t care that they are putting their bodies in jeopardy with each drink or each breath.  Sometimes I wish I could just make others realize what they are really doing.  The change isn’t just about the kids rebelling though.  So many girls these days see the girl on the cover of the magazine and want to be just like her.  They don’t look at the fake air brushed skin, or the ten pounds the camera took off of her.  They just get more and more insecure, which leads to anorexia and eating disorders, which leads to not having the nutrition to grow correctly.  This also is extremely heart breaking because what they want to look like is impossible!  Nobody really looks like that! In conclusion what I’m trying to say is that the youth today is trying to be so much older than they are.  There are so many reasons for it too, the lack of parenting in some children, the media that they see everyday, and the pressure put on them by their friends to do things they know isn’t right.  A middle-school science teacher from Harrisburg, Pa. "That's two years less time to discover what they are, what they believe, to experiment with identity. Instead, they want to be like their friends."  Parents are right… we are growing up to darn fast.