"they Grow Up Fast These Days."

[Boojum]

I'm sure that's a phrase everyone has heard (and most of us have said) at some point regarding children, that they grow up faster now than they used to (presumably in that nostalgic time when everything was better, the grass was greener and that actually never really existed). I've just been wondering about that, and I think I've come to the conclusion that, rather than children growing up faster, it's the adults who have stopped growing up at all. It seems to me now that we exist in a state of perpetual adolescence. Nobody grows up. The world (at least the Western world) appears to hit its teenage years and decides to stay there. Looking around, it appears that on every side we are surrounded by juveniles - the politicians act like spoiled brats, the celebrities behave like 14 year olds left the keys to the house while their parents go on holiday, the rich mess up the world like adolescents with no comprehension of the fact that there is going to be a tomorrow which they are fucking up by their behaviour today. Where did all the grown ups go ? (I don't exempt myself from this, either, I'm 37 going on 15). Maybe the kids seem to grow up faster merely because they catch up with us faster nowadays, because we adults are all caught in a perpetual state of adolescence ?

Or maybe I'm just in one of those moods again

[THC4METOO]

You've got a point there and I think it may have something to do with clothing. Weird statement but let me explain.

I'm 40, and when i was young, small children wore small childrens clothes, teens wore teens clothes, etc, etc. Nowadays it seems like everybody wears the same clothes, I've seen 3 generations of women all wearing the same outfit; old guys in trackies and trainers; pre-teens in boots and mini skirts; 40+ women in the same.

I still wear hoodies, combats and trainers, pretty much the same I wore at 25, yet when my dad was 40 I'm not sure if he even owned a pair of jeans.

Blurring of the lines or maybe the times they are a changing?

[Boojum]

Aye, that's a good point. I get shocked at some of the clothes I see parents allowing their young kids wear (or even buy for them), crop tops, high heels and jeans with sweet in glittery writing on the arse, on pre-teen girls And on the other side of the coin, I doubt my old man owned a pair of jeans at 35, never mind 40, he wore a suit pretty much all the time. Me, I'll be wearing the same I did at 20 when I'm 60, if I live that long, I'm a jeans & T-shirt kinda bloke, put a suit on me and even if it's an expensive tailored one, I still look like I slept in a doorway in it after a particularly full-on weekend booze & drug bender

[HvyFuel]

It's not just clothing imo, I think children are becoming sexually aware and even sexualised at a younger age. Even since my own youth the change is noticeable, and if taken back a few generations extremely so. It sounds a fuddy duddy thing to say but children aren't being allowed to be children any more.

[CaptainAhab]

I think kids do grow up quicker these days, and imo they will grow up even faster as time moves on.

An average 1950's 13 year old did not have a tv in they're bedroom pounding they're brain with adult material nor did they have the internet, computers, mobile phones, high street clothes stores selling teeny weeny bras and thongs, etc etc. I wonder if family values and morals were the main topic of conversation at the dinner table in ' The ole days'. Today its more a case of cook the kids dinner then pack them off to they're room, friends house, to learn for themselves.

These days it seems to me that there is some sort of race on to get children used to adult materials as quick as possible. If your 12 year old is not acting like a 16 year old at school then they get pointed at and called immature. Dont have a mobile phone by the age of 12...Then you are the odd one out amongst you're friends.

The sense of being an adult, if thats the right word, in days gone by was given to the child by it's parents, books, and by interacting with other adults. These days a kid can sit in his/her bedroom all day and learn about sex,money,politics,murder, you name it they can find out about it with out having to be taught it by an adult.

It seems to me that a lot of parents are to busy living they're own lifes and that it's just as easy for kids to learn about sex, for example, from the tv and internet as it is to sit them down and have the talk.

[Guest luda1]

what about the kids that climbed up chimneys for a living back in the day? did they grow up too fast? or die too fast?

[Cosmic Dick]

It's not just clothing imo, I think children are becoming sexually aware and even sexualised at a younger age.

Beat me to it.

I do think that the sexualisation of childhood is a big part of this "growing up fast these days".

Now I might get flamed for this, but I assure you I'm not a homophobe, homosexuality is quite natural, and whether male or female they are no different than any other person. Funny as fuck most of them, just not my cup of tea.

But, I dislike intensely the way the gay agenda has influenced the fashion industry, women in my day had proper curves,

modern models look like boys, (find your own pic for this, I don't have one)

This then leads to eating disorders, even if it is just constant dieting.

Kids should not need to diet, they just need proper nutrition.

CD

edit, wrong pic

Edited April 28, 2010 by Cosmic Dick

[muz nuts]

what about the kids that climbed up chimneys for a living back in the day? did they grow up too fast? or die too fast?

i say die too fast ,when i was a kid i was a kid, play with toys and all that but not now kids are not kids any more ,my girl got two one 10 one 7 going on 18 wtf they teach me stuff

[HvyFuel]

what about the kids that climbed up chimneys for a living back in the day? did they grow up too fast? or die too fast?

How far do you wish to go back? I'm talking post Victoria.

[Boojum]

It's not just clothing imo, I think children are becoming sexually aware and even sexualised at a younger age.

Beat me to it.

I do think that the sexualisation of childhood is a big part of this "growing up fast these days".

Now I might get flamed for this, but I assure you I'm not a homophobe, homosexuality is quite natural, and whether male or female they are no different than any other person. Funny as fuck most of them, just not my cup of tea.

But, I dislike intensely the way the gay agenda has influenced the fashion industry, women in my day had proper curves,

modern models look like boys, (find your own pic for this, I don't have one)

This then leads to eating disorders, even if it is just constant dieting.

Kids should not need to diet, they just need proper nutrition.

CD

edit, wrong pic

Don't think that has anything to do with a gay agenda TBH. I hate the fucked up body image that modern 'fashion' has created, but I think it's more down to the fact that fashion designers see models as walking coathangers, nothing more. And clothes hang off skinny women as if they were coat hangers, I think that is the real root cause - it's the clothes that matter, not the person wearing them, too many curves and it becomes about the woman not the clothes. It's easier to design for a walking coat hanger than a real woman with a real woman's body.

[Comrade Stoker]

They should hand out 1960's & 70's porn mags to all 12 year olds, proper big hairy carpets up to the belly button, black and white and dodgy colour ones, and Farrah flat fronted trousers, that will sort this mess out.

Edited April 28, 2010 by Lake Palmer

[HvyFuel]

Gotta love Farah. Nothing stains them buggers.

[Cosmic Dick]

Fair point Boojum, I have no knowledge of the fashion industry, and your explanation looks more valid than mine.

I'm probably influenced by the odd bits of voxpop on the telly from long ago, I recall seeing many gay fashion designers, and I thought, "just leave the women alone, you buggers".

CD

[Perfect Haze]

Gay agenda?!!?! fucking 'ell, I'll come have to back to this one after a few sharp intakes of breath.

[dirtdog]

Like factory chickens,kids are encouraged to grow into full-fledged consumers earlier and then kept in this un-natural state of materialistic hunger way into there normally disinterested thirties and beyond with bullshitting marketing phrases like yummy mummy and metrosexual etc gwumble gwumble