Kids Growing up too Fast? - Page 4

July 9, 2008, 10:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Karl Friedrich Gauß

No, you just don't get it. I don't feel like climbing trees or playing Legoes anymore because I'm too busy and my hobbies have changed. I told you that we change as we grow older, and I no longer have these opportunities--you don't get to do them anymore when you have to deal with other things. You say there are kids that aren't sex obsessed, and I know there are; I for one wasn't, but I was only speaking specifically of the kids who take sex to be the only thing that matters in their lives, as if they needed a boyfriend/girlfriend in their lives, wear clothes that teens wear and worry about things they're not even able to think about properly--I don't care how much sex they know; that wasn't even the focus to begin with--it's how they think knowing about sex equates to maturity, which it doesn't necessarily.

You make it sound like it's alright for kids to be nasty brats, and I have the feeling the people that agree with me get what I'm talking about.

But when you're a kid, you can ignore these problems by just climbing a tree and doing things other kids normally do. You can't run away from your problems when you're an adult though, or else there are consequences.

True, adults have more responsibilities than children, but I still think you're idealizing childhood. When I was a kid, just climbing or playing didn't make all my problems go away. I was still hurt by a friend, still angry at an adult for condescending to me. There are other kids who have serious issues to deal with such as death or abuse that can't run away from their problems either. Do they have less responsibility yes, but do some kids (many kids) have their personal responsibilities that can still stress them. To you, as an adult, you don't think what children are stressed over as important, but if you remember being a child, it was that important. I have met numerous children with serious emotional problems. I have known young children that have tried to kill themselves multiple times before the age of ten. If you don't take care of the things that are important to you socially as a child or do what your parents want you to do or take care of your pets or placate your sister, you still will have consequences as a child.

I don't enjoy hearing the kids I work with talk about sex; I usually encourage them to stop. But I have never met a kid who only thinks about sex and values nothing else. I think some appear that way as a way of showing off. I think I know a lot of children that should get their priorities straight and not think about it, but realistically a good portion of the adults I know only think about sex or how attractive they are. Unfortunately, some kids do go through puberty by the time they are nine, so some of them are actually thinking about sex and it's not always their fault. If you have the new rush of hormones, you're gonna think about it more.

There are some kids I figure who will get pregnant by the time they are fourteen, but that stuff happens. It is awful and I don't agree with it, but its inevitable that some will. I don't know the statistics, but I don't think there has been any kind of huge jump in the numbers of teen pregnancies in the last twenty years. And not all of the boyfriend girlfriend talk is sex related. Most children's shows include people "falling in love" or whatever, so some kids are doing it to emulate the friendship or romantic side.

And no, I don't think it's okay for children to be nasty brats. I don't think it's okay for adults to be assholes either, but the fact of the matter is some kids are and some adults are. And yes, there is a big difference between sex and maturity and you shouldn't confuse the two, but children are still learning. If a child is attempting to appear like an adult, it's a lot easier to make a dirty joke (because it's something only adults are supposed to do) than it is to make a really mature decision (because thats something that is expected of adults). And please, just because I say something happens and is normal doesn't mean I think it's great or wonderful.

In any case, a good portion of adults I know don't behave in the ways that you say constitute adulthood, but they do engage in sexual behavior. Unfortunately, that is the biggest example of "adulthood" that some kids have, so that is what they think being an adult means.

July 10, 2008, 9:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by aerocrystal

True, adults have more responsibilities than children, but I still think you're idealizing childhood. When I was a kid, just climbing or playing didn't make all my problems go away. I was still hurt by a friend, still angry at an adult for condescending to me. There are other kids who have serious issues to deal with such as death or abuse that can't run away from their problems either. Do they have less responsibility yes, but do some kids (many kids) have their personal responsibilities that can still stress them. To you, as an adult, you don't think what children are stressed over as important, but if you remember being a child, it was that important. I have met numerous children with serious emotional problems. I have known young children that have tried to kill themselves multiple times before the age of ten. If you don't take care of the things that are important to you socially as a child or do what your parents want you to do or take care of your pets or placate your sister, you still will have consequences as a child.

Well, let's see here. When I was a kid, all my grandparents were alive, and when they died, I was old enough to accept their deaths, and had a better grasp of responsibility; I did my homework without my parents worrying about me. Besides them, no one considered important to my childhood life died. The only thing "terrible" I've had happen to me when I was a kid was to have my childhood innocence taken away by a bunch of kids with their stupid sexual connotations and jokes, but I admit I never realized it until I was much older. I admit I probably lost a lot of friends too, because I was insensitive, and didn't understand particular connotations of expressing myself as I was then--and also due to that insensitive property, I didn't take it very hard when I lost friends. So no; that's probably why I didn't realize most of the things children might complain about.

Quote:

I don't enjoy hearing the kids I work with talk about sex; I usually encourage them to stop. But I have never met a kid who only thinks about sex and values nothing else. I think some appear that way as a way of showing off. I think I know a lot of children that should get their priorities straight and not think about it, but realistically a good portion of the adults I know only think about sex or how attractive they are. Unfortunately, some kids do go through puberty by the time they are nine, so some of them are actually thinking about sex and it's not always their fault. If you have the new rush of hormones, you're gonna think about it more.

If it were just only a few kids who had an early puberty, then it's not really that big of a deal--unless everyone else thinks it's cool for someone to "grow up" before they do, and so suddenly, they're popular because of that, and all they talk about is what their "older" peer talks about--sex.

Quote:

There are some kids I figure who will get pregnant by the time they are fourteen, but that stuff happens. It is awful and I don't agree with it, but its inevitable that some will. I don't know the statistics, but I don't think there has been any kind of huge jump in the numbers of teen pregnancies in the last twenty years. And not all of the boyfriend girlfriend talk is sex related. Most children's shows include people "falling in love" or whatever, so some kids are doing it to emulate the friendship or romantic side.

My perception of that is that you don't really call them boyfriends or girlfriends; just childhood friends. It's because when they grow older, they meet new people, and most people don't always keep the same "boyfriends" or "girlfriends" from childhood; they just end up calling them childhood friends later, and they're still good friends; just not romantically involved. So technically, you wouldn't call them "girlfriends" or "boyfriends" because there's not enough romantic love or hormones in there to call it that or enough emotion for a break up; if you lost a friend, it would feel bad, but not as bad as if someone you loved as a lover would. So they're really just close childhood friends.

If children called such friends their boyfriend or girlfriend, it's either because they think having such a friend being called that is mature or socially "cool" or they really want to marry that person when they grow up.

I just thought it might have been worse now because of the way they've now got fashion for young girls that make them look older, and all the stuff about sex in the media and such--but back then, they didn't have much of that stuff, it would just be the cartoon channel and some classic cartoons, and they didn't have Adult Swim back then either.

Quote:

And no, I don't think it's okay for children to be nasty brats. I don't think it's okay for adults to be assholes either, but the fact of the matter is some kids are and some adults are. And yes, there is a big difference between sex and maturity and you shouldn't confuse the two, but children are still learning. If a child is attempting to appear like an adult, it's a lot easier to make a dirty joke (because it's something only adults are supposed to do) than it is to make a really mature decision (because thats something that is expected of adults). And please, just because I say something happens and is normal doesn't mean I think it's great or wonderful.

Well, I already know it happens--everyone else has confirmed it for me. And when you say it's normal, it's usually because you mean to say there's nothing wrong with it.

But just because something is easy to do doesn't make it right.

Quote:

In any case, a good portion of adults I know don't behave in the ways that you say constitute adulthood, but they do engage in sexual behavior. Unfortunately, that is the biggest example of "adulthood" that some kids have, so that is what they think being an adult means.

But kids can play "house" and emulate family roles without including sex. Most of the time, the children that play the siblings are already there--at most, they'll pretend one of the kids is a stork. Unless society has changed so quickly that to children, being an adult really does mean having sex.

July 22, 2008, 1:33 PM

Hi karl,

I haven't read the other pages, but im sure something similiar to this has been mentioned.

Yes kids are growing up too fast, Kids shouldn't be having sex at such an early age, because they aren't responcible.

Some(not me), but some make the argument girls shouldn't be given dolls at such a young age, because it gives them the impression taking care of a kid is easy.

Not really much more I can say on this topic, other than that when me and my brother moved from Puerto Rico to Florida, we were a bit slow on the sexual connotations also, but because we were slow, but because our english sucked.

But I do agree sex=/= maturity.

- Kuja