Growing up too soon; a lost childhood.
Source: flickr
Whatever happened to the times when children were allowed to be children? Today’s children are doing things a lot younger and a lot sooner. In a time when people have longer life spans you’d expect them to want childhood to last longer; but on the contrary, children are learning the facts of life too young. We live in a time-oriented and time-regulated society, where the emphasis is on speed, instant results, fast foods and services. The media is dominating our professional and personal lives which then has led to influencing child behavior. And it is not just media, but also parents who are looking to advance their children to their highest potential.
This is a very serious problem and has been shown to have a detrimental impact on the future of these children. There are signs of it everywhere: youngsters at R-rated films, little girls dressed like they are on their way to a nightclub and young boys killing people in violent video games like Halo and Grand Theft Auto. We want to make sure children don’t get their childhood stolen from them, but also we don’t want to baby them, so finding a happy medium is the hard part. It is my goal to explore this issue, its effects on children and possible solutions that could be implemented in the future to help children reclaim their childhood.