# Do You Think Young Kids Are Growing Up Too Soon Nowadays?



## SeaBreeze (Sep 23, 2014)

I see so many young children around, who are dressed really mature for their age.  I mean young girls around the age of 4 to 10.  They wear dark colored nail polish, lipstick, womanly jewelry, and clothes that you might think of seeing on a teenager, and some clothes very ******.  It seems that they act very serious too, some even seem to be short-tempered and angry about things around them.  

When I was a young kid, I was just that.  My mother dressed me appropriately and I had no makeup whatsoever.  I laughed, followed my mothers instruction and lead in public places, and I was polite to my elders.  I was very immature compared to the kids I see today, but I guess I was just acting my age back then.

Do you think that children are pushed into maturity too soon?  Do you think parents should allow them to dress up like that?  Or, do you think it's okay and just a sign of the times?


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## Warrigal (Sep 23, 2014)

Let's not confuse precociousness with maturity.

I agree that children are sexualised far too early.
I can't imagine what their mothers are thinking in these days when we are starting to realise the number of men out there who are paedophiles. 

I'm not in favour of neck to knee coverups but draw the line at suggestive styles and slogans.









Spoiler
















I can still remember the end of year children's dance concert I attended where 14 year olds were performing a suggestive dance routine complete with bumps, grinds and legs spread while singing "Voulez vous couchez avec moi?" This would have been about ten years ago and I nearly had an apoplexy. No-one else turned a hair.


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## Ralphy1 (Sep 24, 2014)

Why do some mothers allow and push their young girls into this behavior?


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## Warrigal (Sep 24, 2014)

Beats me. I was very happy when my young teenage daughter was going through a phase where she cut her hair very short and took to wearing King Gee overalls. She looked awful. Her father was rather concerned about it but I was very happy to see that she was not dressed as gaol bait. Anyway, like all phases, it passed.


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## Ralphy1 (Sep 24, 2014)

King Gee overalls?  Did you wear them too?  Sort of a mother/daughter thing?


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## Warrigal (Sep 24, 2014)

Nup. My legs are too short.


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## Ralphy1 (Sep 24, 2014)

Couldn't you just roll them up a little?


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## Butterfly (Sep 25, 2014)

Let us not forget those godawful kiddie beauty pageants where young girls are made up and dressed to look as provocative as possible, a la JonBenet Ramsey.  Besides being completely inappropriate (and dangerous, I think), it sends the wrong message to girls -- that their value is only in their looks and that being the most "beautiful" and sexy is the most important thing in life.


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## Justme (Sep 25, 2014)

I think dressing young children in paedophile bait clothes should be totally illegal!


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## Pappy (Sep 25, 2014)

I totally agree, Justme. My kids wore clothing that matched the time period. Dressing up meant going to a nice function or church.


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## SeaBreeze (Sep 25, 2014)

Girls dressed up like hookers for beauty pageants is sickening to me, bad for the child and lures perverts.  The mothers should seek counseling for their mental/emotional wellness.  Most of them are trying to do through their daughters what they never could achieve...so it's a mentality that need addressing IMO.


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## Davey Jones (Sep 25, 2014)

Ralphy1 said:


> Why do some mothers allow and push their young girls into this behavior?



Cause they are not REAL Mothers?


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## Capt Lightning (Sep 25, 2014)

Some years ago, I worked as a school janitor.  Come exam time, there was a room set aside for nursing mothers with their kids.  The mums were 14,15,16 years old - still in compulsary education!  Even from first day of the senior school year at age 11, you could spot the girls to watch.  Shorter skirts, lower cut blouses, makeup etc..


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## AprilT (Sep 25, 2014)

Too many parents are just bystanders, seems a whole generation of kids are and have been raising themselves.  Not saying this is the what's happening in all or most households, but seems to be happening way too often.


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## RadishRose (Sep 25, 2014)

Yes. growing up too soon. Then I wonder if every generation "grows up" a little sooner than the previous generation.

As far as the little girls, I am disgusted by the "come-hither" style of dress their parents allow or encourage! This goes for fathers too.


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## hollydolly (Sep 25, 2014)

Capt Lightning said:


> Some years ago, I worked as a school janitor.  Come exam time, there was a room set aside for nursing mothers with their kids.  The mums were 14,15,16 years old - still in compulsary education!  Even from first day of the senior school year at age 11, you could spot the girls to watch.  Shorter skirts, lower cut blouses, makeup etc..



Good grief I've never heard of that , ever...a nursing room for school children mothers?...OMG!!


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## Debby (Sep 25, 2014)

Ralphy1 said:


> Why do some mothers allow and push their young girls into this behavior?




Maybe they dress like that themselves and want to be their kids friends.  And friends don't criticize their BFF's clothes right?


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## Warrigal (Sep 25, 2014)

We have had programs in schools to allow teenage mothers to continue their education so that they will eventually be able to support themselves and their child. They need flexible programs because of the demands of motherhood. These girls are the victims of early sexualisation and more often than not, so are the young fathers. Education their best way out of the mess they find themselves in.


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## Ralphy1 (Sep 26, 2014)

I remember when there was a home for unwed mothers that was called the house of shame.  The expecting mothers were pretty much hidden away until they gave birth and their babies were adopted out.  Our way of dealing with the problem today is a huge step in removing the stigma and allowing these girls a chance at a better life...


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## WhatInThe (Sep 26, 2014)

I think kids are exposed to to much too soon unable to process it all or put into perspective. They don't have the wisdom or life experience to understand what they are doing or getting into.


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## Warrigal (Sep 26, 2014)

It's not all that new. I used to teach at a catholic girls junior high school. At the end of year 10 the students leaving us to go on to senior high school or to work were aged no more than 15-16. We sent them off with a special mass for the girls and their families followed by a modest dinner for the staff and girls (no boys invited) in the school auditorium. 

I was frequently aghast at the outfits some of them wore. They would have been more appropriate if they had been frequenting the bars and nightclubs of downtown Sydney than receiving communion in their local church. The amount of flesh on display was eye-popping in some cases. With a teenage girl myself, I couldn't imagine what their mothers were thinking. Pretty obviously, their fathers had little say in what they wore.

Naïve as I was in those days I didn't realise then that they would finish the night with an "after party" complete with booze and boys, generously hosted by some obliging parents because the school affair was just too tame.


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## Susie (Sep 27, 2014)

Hard to believe that clothes are the sole cause of early sexualization when children in Australia are forced to wear school uniforms from day 1, some of these outfits being truly hideous!
Taken out of context: "Kids are fed a diet of sexualized images on the internet, in magazines, on TV advertising, and kids are sponges for this sort of thing, and mass exposure legitimizes it."
from ("Are our children being exposed to a barrage of ****** images and products?")


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## GeorgiaXplant (Sep 28, 2014)

Parents, wanting to be thought of as cool and with-it parents, have been and are bowing to pressure from a gazillion outside forces starting with Madison Avenue filtering down through the media and then back up again through their own kids/kids' friends. Parents seem to have un-learned the word "no". Adulthood is portrayed to kids as the over-arching goal, but unfortunately once they're beyond toddlerhood there doesn't seem to be an in-between stage. 

 In regard to pedophiles or others who would prey on children, the manner of dress really has nothing to do with anything. There were pedophiles in the past; we just didn't hear much about them for two reasons. One is because it was such a shameful subject that it just wasn't discussed, and the other is because we didn't have almost instant access to media reports of that behavior once it was no longer considered taboo and not to be mentioned.

And in regard to parents, mothers especially, wanting to be their kids' friends, I never wanted to be my kids' friend; I was their mother, and that's what I wanted to be. They only get one mother. They have their own friends just as I have mine and certainly wouldn't have expected them to include my friends as theirs.


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## Davey Jones (Sep 28, 2014)

hollydolly said:


> Good grief I've never heard of that , ever...a nursing room for school children mothers?...OMG!!



 My granddaughter is a junior in high school and I drive her off there daily and yes there is a place for students with babies to drop them off at the daycare with its nursing room.
I see these student walking to school pushing their baby carriage with other students, I don't care for it because it gives the other female students ideas that its OK to have a kid while attending high school. They should be home schooled IMO.


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