Clothes make the man - Or Child

[mrsl]

I'm sure a lot of you tire of 'hearing' me rant about some things, but this is really in my craw and has been for years now. Today, I tuned into The View to see Alan Jackson and happened upon a Sears commercial for little girls' clothing sales. The girls were about 9 to 11 with full make-up and dancing to some rock music, as well as 'posing' in between. This has been going on for about 15 years now. Why can't little kids (boys and girls alike) be little? Why must pre-pre-teens be treated and exposed to teenage and young adult behavior?

When I was 9 to 11, I was still playing with dolls, and fashion only meant what was most comfortable - shorts in the summer and long pants in the winter. This trend toward adulthood has been growing and growing for a long time now so I'm sure there is no turning back, but I resent people taking childhood, and the wonder of it away from children. A little girl plays with dolls to learn, although she doesn't know it, how to be a mother when her time comes. When little girls and boys played together, the boy used to be the father, which taught him a sense of responsibility and protective attitude, also for when his time came. Nowadays when a little girl and boy play together, its just a race to see who kills more guys on their personal hand held games in the shortest time. That's why hospitals give training to new mothers - because they don't know how to change a diaper! - and that's because their childhood was taken away by adult advertisers.

I happened to catch a Whoopi stand-up last night. Of course she made it funny, but her point was like a blinking light that suddenly got bright.

She's my age and said, when we were raised it was with such strict parameters that when we had kids, we were going to be easier on ours. Which we were! We were going to be 'friends' with our kids - which we were. So they didn't have to say please and thank you all the time, or yes sir or no mam but. . . never having to say it themselves, they didn't know the reasoning behind it, and never taught their kids. Now we have 6 and 7 year olds who have no idea that there is a difference between your parents friends, and your own friends. Everybody is a first name basis, so where is the honor or respect for older people?

I know a lot of you, like me, didn't go with these theories, but also like me were less hard on a lot of other things. Am I wrong in getting angry at these commercials that treat children as adults? Or am I just showing my age and being an old biddy?

Anne

[MissGoddess]

I agree with just about everything you say, Ann. I find the trend really sad and alarming. Childhood should be about innocence and wonder and ought to be protected by the adults. Instead, adults chide and tease kids who act like kids!

Very, very tragic.

[bradtexasranger]

Anne,

I totally agree with you. Kids grow up way too fast these days and it's really sad. I can't believe the number of kids who have cell phones and computers at their disposal. No kids had anything like that when I was growing up, I don't see the need in it, but it probably won't change much unfortunately.

[Ayres]

Don't you miss the lovely dresses little girls used to wear? Puffed sleeves, pinafores, lacey little yokes. And the cute sailor suits and striped shirts on the boys...

[Moraldo Rubini]

I had summer suit of seersucker with a little lamb embroidered on the pocket; short pants of course. I felt so dapper in them. I also had always had semi-formal wear: both black tie and and a white dinner jacket for summer. This -- along with my curly hair -- made me very popular for "casting" in weddings as the ring bearer. My sister is 11 years older than I, and I suspect she rented me out to her friends in this role.

[mrsl]

Marco:

How I would love to see a picture of that!! You must have been a perfect doll!!!!!

They keep showing that ad for the Esther Williams box set, and it includes that shot of Peter Lawford in the white trunks with hands on hips, and Oh Boy, what a pleasure to look at instead of those baggy, down to the knees, ugly things the boys and men wear now to swim in. Except of course, the dimwits that think they look so great in speedos. Like womens bikinis, speedos cannot be worn by any man, oh they can be worn, but they don't necessarily look sexy or attractive.

Anne