Yeah, my daughter is 13 and she's head and shoulders over where I was at 13. It's sad, in a way.
Does this mean we can kick the kids out of the nest at 13?
I'm glad I'm not a kid today.
Sexually mature at 10; emotionally mature at 28.
Total BS. People don't grow up until age 30 these days. They are more immature than ever before.
Historically, they would have starved to death for their delayed mental growth.
It was a good system, and only modern society has ruined it.
Plastic gives off chemical estrogen. Microwave food is a must have in our new world of immediate gratification. Plastics are everywhere.
I think it's a good thing. We've been slowing down the growing up process too long. It's gotten to the point where even grownups aren't grownups because we're no longer supposed to expect someone in their 20s to act like an adult, and now that 40 is supposed to be the new 20 I guess people in their 30s aren't supposed to act like adults either. And it starts when their kids, the path to an immature 30 year old goes through 10 year old encouraged to not grow up.
It's all the hormones in the milk.....
There's a lot of media attention on this, as it's a reality that has been a problem for a quite a while - if the media is aware of it, then it's been going on for a long time. Kids in my area in Northern California were "dating" when in 3rd grade, and allowed to wear makeup to school.
I find it ironic and sad that while kids are thrust into adulthood through sexual activity and such, older kids and teenagers are seemingly incapable of dealing with much else in their lives, I know a lot of 19-25 year olds that have no clue how to cook, clean, care for themselves, pay bills, save money, and live lives of drama and chaos because they've gotten no eductaion in common sense and the basics of life. Then they go and have children, and the cycle is renewed. It's the blind leading the blind.
The liberal media spends decades worrying and demanding that kids be taught about sex, gay lifestyles, and killing Flipper, yet the kids are thrust into the world with zero survival skills, and any attempts to ask for them to be taught that is answered with scorn and cries of extra work from teachers. I remember being taught how to use a checkbook in 6 or 7th grade (with supplements from our dad), most teens and young adults I know don't know what one is, how to use it, or even know where theirs is.
Things have to change, and media coverage of the problem is heartening, but we have a long way to go, because we have young adults raising kids who were also part of this problem, and those young adults are essentially children, with no life skills.
I have friends in their mid twenties who have experienced just about everything you can imagine, and more, at their young age - drug addiction, alcoholism, suicide, sexual promiscuity and exploration, depravity, emotional turmoil...and if you throw a simple problem at them, they fall to pieces. I spend a lot of time coaching them into learning how to deal with problems, and to gain some skills in dealing with life. It's rough work, but a few I care about enough to try. Right now it's about a 50/50 success rate.
A major part. Children and adults alike, who are constantly bombarded with ads, will eventually fall prey. Ads are everywhere now. On web sites, buses, in schools, in movies, etc. It's distressing to me. I can't imagine what it does to small children. I am teaching my son that ads are not good - to ignore them.
"Claire Unterseher, a mother in Chicago, says she only allows her children - including an 8-year-old son and 7-year-old daughter - to watch public television."
How to raise a little commie...
"Some of them are going on "dates" and talking on their own cell phones. They listen to sexually charged pop music, play mature-rated video games and spend time gossiping on MySpace. And more girls are wearing makeup and clothing that some consider beyond their years.
Zach is starting to notice it in his friends, too, especially the way they treat their parents.
"A lot of kids can sometimes be annoyed by their parents," he says. "If I'm playing with them at one of their houses, then they kind of ignore their parents. If their parents do them a favor, they might just say, 'OK,' but not notice that much."
Whose fault is this??? Hormones? No. It's caused by moronic parents who indulge their child's every whim. Children aren't growing up faster. Quite the contrary. At this point they are more emotionally immature at 18 than say during the 1940's. That's what happens when a country becomes fat, comfortable and lazy. A child engaging in precocious behavior because the parents haven't the where-with-all to instruct and discipline is not a sign of early maturity.
We homeschool, so we miss out on a lot of this stuff day-to-day. I did, however, hear this song WAY too many times at the community pool with my kids this summer. The radio is a no-no for now in my house, as is most of TV. They stuff that comes on is unbelievable! You can be watching a completely innocent show and then here come the offensive commercials. My oldest kids are almost seven, and we'll keep it at Schoolhouse Rock and Disney classics for as long as we can.
Kids aren't growing up faster; they are being programmed.
They struggle to process the images of sex, violence and adult humor, even when their parents try to shield them. And sometimes, he says, parents end up encouraging the behavior by failing to set limits - in essence, handing over power to their kids.
Keyword: struggle; they are forced to deal with things that goes beyond their mental development.
"Physically, they're adults, but cognitively, they're children," says Alderman, the physician in New York.
Right....and I don't care what NAMBLA's position on the matter is.
As an example of the latter reaction, she notes how some parents think it's cute when their daughters wear pants or shorts with words such as "hottie" on the back.
No comment needed.
"A 12-year-old isn't sexy."
Not to normal people, anyway.
"I don't want to be like a prude. But some of the stuff out there, it's just out of control sometimes," says Otis, a father of three from Maplewood, N.J.
You have nothing to apologize for.
We put my 10 year old daughters in private Christian school this year because they were being exposed to way too much negative influences in public school.
So far, the new private school is great and most of the kids seem to be much more like my daughters, a little bit innocent.
My 12 year old is still in public school. He's a good kid, but he is exposed to a lot. He says the language is horrible at school.
The adults have failed their children.
The adults in many businesses care nothing for the community only how much money they can make today.
Parents too often worry about being buddies or worse,living vicariously through their children.
My ex resisted any attempt to discipline her children from her first marriage and permitted them and their friends to drink beer and party while I was gone to work.
Horsehockey (the article)...did more, seen more by 13 then any kid nowadays (anecdotal, I know)...middle class kids aren't allowed to experience life's hardships...
If they are "aging up " earlier ,they are maturing later. There are lots of people who are still teenagers at age 25.