As I am sure many of you will know it now seems the norm to walk around and see an eight year old playing on an iPad or some sort of electronic. But is this one of the reasons children want to become adults too early? Or is it due to the incredibly high amounts of pressure put upon children to be the best of the best, not just the best that they can be.
Many people would say that it’s because of freedom. Children don’t know what it’s like to be older, but adults know what it’s like to be young, and just how easy you have it. However kids only see that adults are respected, they get to do what they want, and they can drive, they are allowed to stay up late etc. all children want that. As children we are constantly being told what to do- go clean up your room, do your prep, those clothes aren’t appropriate- we feel as though we have no control over our own lives, we see how adults are in charge, they make the rules and regulations, so naturally we want that, we want to be able to do what adults do. Kids think if they talk, dress and act like adults; they will be taken more seriously and treated more like an adult. Some children really don’t like being treated like kids.
As a teenager, we are on the verge of independence, but still not quite there, it’s like when you get a test result back, you got a B, but just one more mark would have got you that A, but you still have to wait until you are tested again. At fifteen, you can almost leave school, at sixteen you can almost drive, and it becomes irritating when you’re so close, but you still have to confirm all these rules, and it seems like you just have to wait a little bit longer, but one becomes impatient and tired of all the waiting.
Some would say it’s the parents pushing them to be the best of the best, to compete. But the pressure isn’t all on the children, there’s pressure for parents from the time their kid is born to get them to roll over, crawl, eat solid foods, and learn to read. It’s not good enough just to play anymore. Parents allow their children to grow up too fast, to try and keep up with other parents who are trying to do the same thing. The more they do it, the more they think that it’s okay. So kids are being pushed to grow up and to act maturely, young teens have jobs, do chores and make crucial decision which will affect their entire lives, but they have none of the benefits of being an adult.
But is it a bad thing that children are growing up faster? Due to the ever-growing technology children are able to understand a more complicated and sophisticated angle of life, this enhances them to expand their knowledge and indulge into more subjects they haven’t come across before. These different forms of media are starting to increase the intelligence in children as they have to assess different uses of their brains they haven’t really explored before to be able to develop and fully understand the way this new and modern technology works. But along with this being an incredible resource for children to explore things they have never come across before, should it be censored? Nowadays many computers and broad bands have blocks on many websites to do with certain things so that children can’t access explicit contents or websites that may not be age appropriate. Parents tend to protect their children by banning them from exploring the World Wide Web, although they feel as though they are protecting them, this is stopping children from understanding a lot of information they could gain from browsing the internet. Censoring could also stop children from keeping up with their friends that have the ability to search whatever they want.
As a child, I know that the most frustrating thing to be asked is, ‘what do you want to be when you grow up?’ I am only 15 years old and I have absolutely no idea of what I’m going to be when I’m older, and I don’t mind, I have a good 3-4 years to go. Parents and teachers constantly push us to find out what we want to be when we are older, yet we are still trying to get through school. Some children may already know, but having people push you to find out, can be the sort of things that make you want to grow up faster so you can get away from all the constant questions which we don’t have the answers to.
There are so many ways that children are being encouraged to grow up too fast. A lot of the time it isn’t the fault of the children, but instead of the parents and adults that surround them, and the constant want to be able to do what they can do.