I have noticed a trend over the past ten years or so that is quite disheartening. Children are no longer allowed to be children. It makes me sad how quickly now we over manage and determine the appropriateness of our children s behavior. See, even though a kid may talk like a teenager, act like a teenager, and even look like they a teenager they are still a kid. Forgetting this just ensures that when they are a teen, we won't like the behaviors they set forth. Why? Because you didn't let them be a child, so when they are a teen they are going to keep acting like a child. They were expected to grow up too fast and never had the opportunity to learn what was necessary to act appropriately to their age.
Setting aside the argument about appropriate materials (i.e. media) for children, I want to focus on why we let size determine how our children act. With the increase in medication, proper nutrition (and often times over-nutrition), and hormonal imbalance our kids are getting bigger. This is not necessary a bad thing. Our children are getting great immunizations, amazing amounts of vitamins and nutrients to promote bone and muscle growth, and getting excellent medical care that does things like set broken bones, mend sports injuries, and speed up recovery times for series illness. All of these good things, and all of things which lead to bigger healthy children.
There is also some downside. Too much fatty and processed food has lead to obesity and early onset puberty in many children. Combined with hormones being used in our food which in turn has an affect on our children leads to bigger children (and I don't mean taller). I am not here to have the debate over food practices, I am just using this information to state that our children and 1. getting bigger fast and 2. going through puberty at an earlier age.
Ok, so our kids are getting bigger so what? Well, since our kids are bigger we are assuming they are older. It doesn't matter if an eight year old is four feet tall or five feet tall, they are still eight. Just because they are not small and cute anymore doesn't mean they aren't a kid anymore. This is what we are forgetting. We see a big kid, we expect a mature kid. In doing so we put them through a lot of unnecessary stress and pressure. The poor kid is already growing too fast and has a physical body they are not ready to have, and now we expect them to suddenly grow up and be mature just because they had a growth spurt. I have worked with a lot of kids and it breaks my heart when a five year old feels like they are too big now to be picked up. Yes I get it, a five year old can be a pretty hefty kid, but you know what? Still five. Still wants to be held and treated like they are a preschooler no matter their size. I get than not everybody is able to pick up a 50 or 60 lb kid, but we can still let them act like a child.
We are no longer allowing children to act their age, but we want them to act their size. This is so stupid its actually hard for me type. Can you imagine a parent our at a park with there kids and their child jumps off the swing, or doesn't wait their turn the Mom yells out "Hey you are five feet tall you know better than that". Its ridiculous. We are taking a completely arbitrary measurement that a child has no control over whatsoever and we use it to determine the way our children should be behaving.
Since we see this bigger child as an older child it leads to the other end in the argument by assuming that child is more responsible and more mature. We give them to much responsibility and allow them to partake in things (media wise) that they are not old enough to handle. There is a reason why media has ratings that are based on age and not height.
Ok, so end of rant, but please for me if you could, if you have a kid in your life whether its your own child or just a child in your who is important think about their age. Think about what life was like for you at that age and remember kids today are actually no different than they used to be. Inside, deep down we are all just children, and we all need our chance to be a kids.
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