Holy Holy Holy Lord God Almighty .. [Agnus Dei]

How soon is too soon?

Is it me or does anyone else notice that children's behaviorism's are getting maturer quicker than ever,  and is it all due to pop culture?  Let me define first what I mean by children, I'm talking about anyone under the age of 16 for my point of reference at this time. I know most people refer to the age of 18 years, but I'm sticking to the age group I am consistently around and am more familiar with their behaviors.  My 12 year old and her friends are into coffee drinks!  Coffee drinks of all things!  I remember being her age and tasting some coffee my mom made and no amount of sugar could make that horrible stuff pleasing to my palette (but maybe it was my mom's coffee brewing technique), I also remember my mom stating "coffee will stunt your growth".  Maybe that's why I am one of the shortest in my family.  I wonder if Starbucks has anything to do with the surge of teen coffee consumers, hmm... it's a good possibility as even now McDonald's sell's their version of the Frappuccino.  This same 12 year old came to me a couple of months ago asking if she could have a Facebook account as "everyone" she  knows has either a Facebook or Myspace account.  I of course said no without hesitation.  I explained to her that she's too young for that, and I'm sure not everyone has those accounts, and if you get everything now, what do you have to look forward to in high school or even college.  Of course I'm seen as the over strict and lame parent.  I cannot fathom what good is allowing my child to have something that can jeopardize her safety and security as well as she really doesn't have that many friends to worry about keeping up with blogs and so forth.  Now let's skip down to my six year old whom happened to utter the word "ass" the other day as she was telling the dog to "sit your ass down"!  Great!  I calmly said, um you, come here, that word "ass" is a bad word that we do not use, and where did you learn that from?  She tells me it's on TV, and I'm like, "I don't think so".  Wouldn't you know it, an ad for "Dance your ass off" the TV show comes on and my daughter points to the TV and says see!  I never even noticed that stupid show or it's ad's and this was during afternoon television on a local channel!  I guess censorship has changed in the last few years as that would've never happened just 5 or 10 years ago.  My mom use to tell me stories about how her grandparents (she was raised by her grandparents when her mother died leaving 12 children) they were disturbed when they would do the current dances, such as the Twist, locomotion and so forth as they believed people should not be gyrating like that and especially in public.  I wonder what my mom would think of seeing kids as young as 3 on YouTube or like I do at the elementary school playground singing "If you like you should a put a ring on it" by Beyonce?  My mom passed away seven years ago, but I know she would be scandalized by that!  I wonder if those parents whom taped their very young children singing that song, really know what Beyonce was talking about "liking"?  I guess what my point really is that I have a 12 year old going on 25 and a 6 year old going on 20, and I feel like even I can't slow down their accelerated progression to what I consider "Mature Consumer" products.

Yeah, Right!

Were preteen years always so difficult? I can't remember. I don't feel old being that I'm in my early forties, but I can't remember being so discontent with everything. My preteen is driving me nuts! She gets a new (used/rebuilt) computer, then swears there is nothing to do on it except some homework, because it doesn't have built in WiFi (oops, forgot to check that feature out, as I was rushing to leave the store). So I run to Radioshack to buy her a USB WiFi device to connect her to the home router, and now she's not happy because I put a parental block on it! Oh yeah baby, you must be off your rocker if you thought you were going to have free access to the wild and evil internet! A week later she must go to Target to purchase a new Sims 3 because all the other Sims 3 games she has are either "stupid" or the disc got scratched up since putting up anything to her means leaving it on your bedroom floor. I politely asked her if she had gas & Starbucks money for me as I don't believe in unnecessary trips to another side of town, and the frappé was need as substance if I had to go to Target without any money. Of course she had the money and then some, considering a week ago she got payment for making honor roll (I never got that treatment, it was bring home anything below a C, and "I'll beat your behind" famous words of my mother). So we go to Target get this add-on version for Sims 3, and lo and behold 3 days later, its lame! So miss lame is now finding out what it's like to not have a computer to play games on, its been a week of help mommy chores, bet that game is looking pretty "sweet" now! I have friends and family that wonder why I won't buy a Wii, or an Xbox, PlayStation, none of it! This is Why, it will be lame in a few weeks if that long, and I don't have the time nor money for all the games and add-ons. Plus my thought is these kids now days get some much so soon, that leads to this constant state of discontent, unimaginative, undisciplined children. Children now days in my opinion have the attention span of a gnat. They are so use to electronic devices and features that let you surf, play and just zone out at the speed of light, that it's no wonder school is "boring" to them. They are reflecting what is suppose to be entertainment for a brief down time, as how they view world and how the world is suppose to operate for them. I work part-time at a local school as a playground supervisor, so I see a lot of lack of imagination daily. I go to break up a fight between two boys, they look about 7 or 8 yrs old, and come to find out it's not really a real fight, but them re-enacting a video game they play after school! I have kids come up to me and say "I'm bored what can we do?" This is recess! Come on! My friends and I lived for recess! I am literally giving 5th to 1st graders game ideas and how to play games we lived and breathed at their age! Ghost's in the graveyard, capture the flag, freeze tag, and so forth. So when miss preteen came up to me just today as she was released from chore duty and so sweetly asked if she could have a Facebook account, it took everything I had to not explode, literally explode (is that humanly possible?)! I asked her why she wants a Facebook account at the age of eleven as she could not have enough friends to even make it worth the time to log on, and she states "all the kids at my school have one and a MySpace account". Well there you go! Not! I told her, leave something to look forward to in high school when you become very popular, then you can see just how tedious and boring it is to try to keep up with "everyone". Such sage advice!

Why?

What is this fascination we have with journaling our thoughts for the world to see? Is it egotism, support, validation, and the need to be heard/read? Whatever the reason or reasons, I enjoy reading other people blogs. What a great way to get another person's perspective and actually hear what they are saying as there is no opportunity to interrupt, so you just read and hear their perspective without all the distractions. I decided to give this a try for several reasons (and yes some of the previously mention ones do fit), my friends are always telling me I should I write a book because some of the things I say or that happens to me are either very funny or just too deliciously wicked to not share. I also find that I too need an outlet that let's me express myself without the constant interruptions I find at work and home. Enough for today, enjoy and keep your eyes/ears open for musings from the girl on the right ;-)