Are Children Growing Up Too Fast

Children today are growing up too fast. There is no denying it. What happened? When you were a child what did you do? Because I played with my friends, we climbed trees, made dens; laughed, got our clothes dirty, because as Persil says dirt is good. We coloured in and watched those silly little programmes that had no purpose on TV while eating our favourite ice-cream, half of it over our faces and our clothes, but we did not mind it was our childhood. Today's children are different. We played with Barbies while they are Barbies, high fashion was for our dolls not for us, we played with Tamagochies they have laptops, phones, iPods, iPads and much more. When we would be playing our computer games they are on Facebook. What does a seven year old actually do on Facebook?

We now live in a world where children are inspired by glamour models, “wags”, pop stars, actors and beauty pageant queens. Little girls form when they are just babies are entered into the world of beauty pageaunts. There are three types of beauty pageants: Glitz, Semi-Glitz and Natural. A Glitz pageant is where the girl is required to wear heavy make-up, fake tans, glitter, a flipper, rhinestones and sometimes even swimwear, can you believe that? Swimwear? Semi-Glitz pageants are much the same except they do not allow a flipper or as much spray tan and they are not allowed to wear heavy make-up. Where as a natural pageant the girls are not allowed a flipper, spray tan, rhinestones, headpieces or they could be disqualified. The majority of the girls that participate in beauty pageants are spoilt brats. They are forced into a lot of things by their parents that pay ridiculous amounts on dresses, flippers, make-up and the rest. Most take tantrums if they do not get their way and mostly care about money.

There are also girls outside beauty pageants like Poppy Burge, from the United Kingdom. This little girl has been dragged into a world of beauty, make-up and clothes by the life-size human Barbie. From a young age she has been wearing a full face of make-up, designer clothes, pole dancing and for her 7th birthday she got a voucher for a boob job. Along with a computer, a £4000 spa holiday, a ring and necklace set worth £450. Her mother, Sarah Burge spend £12,000 on a exotic paper party living Poppy and her friends manicures in the back of a pink bus. Poppy was delighted with these gifts and told Closer magazine: "I wanted a new computer, a holiday and a voucher for surgery when I got it all It was a dream come true I can't wait to be like mummy”. As for the pole dancing this is a sexual style of dancing that is inappropriate for a girl of seven years old. Poppy is far to young and shouldn't be receiving any of these. You are a sensible person you must agree?

There is another little girl like Poppy from the United Kingdom called Teya-Marie Foster. Shockingly this four year old already knows how to apply a full face of make-up influenced by her mother Chelsea, aged 23, who, along with her partner Andrew, lives on benefits. This couple has not worked since 2006. Chelsea said "People are shocked when they see her with mascara, but it makes her happy and she looks cute. I'd love her to be a model - I wouldn't mind if she did glamour modelling and I wouldn't stop her having a boob job when she is 18 if she wants one."
Sadly there are many more girls just like Teya-Marie and Poppy. Child beauty is becoming bigger and bigger. Research by market analyst Mintel studied a group of 6000 children aged 7 to 19. The following results were found: "six out of ten seven to ten year old wore lipstick", "more than two in five wore eye shadow or eyeliner", "and almost one in four wore mascara" and a shocking "three in five want to be slimmer". According to the '2005 British Journal of Development Psychology' said "that almost 50% of girls between five and eight want to be slimmer" that is extremely unhealthy. This is a shocking amount do you not you think?

But who is to blame? Who would you blame? Many would blame the parents. After all a survey of almost 1200 parents of children who are under 18 shown "more than half believe that children are young adults at 11" according to the ICM survey by Random House. The survey also shown "Almost three quarters allow children to drink alcohol before they are 18" and "Almost half allow their 16 year olds to spend a night at their respective partner’s house". Maybe you knew all this? But I bet you didn't know that 53% of under 16 are allowed out pat 11pm.
But who does the parent blame? They blame various different things celebrities, music videos, adverts, programmes on television and much more. Nine out of ten UK parents say that children are growing up too fast. "40% out of 1025 parents with five to sixteen year olds said that they have seen something that they thought was inappropriate in public places and 41% said they had seen programmes or adverts before 9pm that were inappropriate"
So what’s the answer? Is it the parents? Is it the pressure to be perfect by everything around them? Or is it the children themselves? Because I think will a little love and respect from the parents they could be helped because love is louder than the pressure to be perfect. Isn't it? TV, celebrities, songs and adverts cannot be the answer because we have all seen them and we are not all like that? Make your own mind up about who to blame. But I've gave you the facts children are growing up too fast.