tween

imera

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061125/ap_on_re_us/teen_tweens

Okay, this is a world issue. I have noticed in my family also, I have sisters at the age of 10, 12 and 17, I am a bit concerned. The one on 17 now went trough it when she was 14-15 years, that is a good age I think, but she went trough it to fast, she lost her virginity at that time. The one on 10 doesn’t show it that much, but you can see that she likes to dress up nice, the one that is now 12 is a bit worse. Or she is easily influenced by others, I try to tell her that she should not hear on such bullshit. And she isn’t one of the popular kids, so it is much harder for her to not want to be one of them. But what I am most shocked of is that one of her friend told her that it was time to get boyfriends, they were only 10-11 at that time. What has the world come to when kids can’t be kids??

tony

yes. i think children grow up to fast these days. at least in america and britain - there are exceptions of course.

Soulfire

Yeah, kids are exposed to things younger and younger. I caught my 12 year old cousin with an inappropriate magazine and had a bit of a talk with him about it.

I'm not sure the solution, if existent, is very easy. Some could say stricter parenting, but at an age when kids want independence, forcing more control on them creates a lot of frustration.

faker_phil

Montressor

Shall we blame it on Ritalin? Or can we just say that attempting to teach kids algebra in 4th grade is too much?
Or could we instead accept responsibility for not helping the next generation correctly, by perhaps not spending enough time with them, by not allowing them how to learn through experience, or even by saving them the pain of discovering that wasps hurt? Interestingly enough all infants could be considered theoretical physicists, philosophers, politicians and a host of other knowledge seekers, since young children learn through direct observation of the world and apply this knowledge to their benefit, yet somewhere along the line we lose this ability. Not to sound Disney-esque, but what happened to imagination? Must we avoid analytical thought as if it were the Plague? Maybe we have tried too hard to help them, given them too much and therefore deprived them of the ability to take, to seek, to grasp desperately for that hidden piece of knowledge?

Give me this rant, and forgive me my distaste for the apparently inevitable condition of the majority of humanity I beg of you.