I was sitting thinking the other day about the children of today, those growing up amongst teenagers and adults especially. They grow up thinking that they need to be like the older people around them, they act like mini adults. Often the behaviour that they copy of the older generation is the negative behaviour, the shadow side of their heroes. It is not by choice that they do that but rather by chance. Memorable behaviour is like any other memory, the negative has such a big impact on you, making it easier to remember, more likely to copy.
The humour of the older generation, teenagers especially, is seen as ‘inappropriate’ for young children. The jokes can be grown up, sarcastic or with an attitude not suited to the younger children.
It irritates me when younger children act older than their age but I have come to realise, I have no right to. I am the one setting the example. What they do is a spitting image of me, of my generation. The world today does not establish an environment where young children can grow up as children. We do not provide what they need to enjoy their childhood; we push them along to grow up faster.
The whole issue around children not growing up as children anymore, not being in an environment for children has been bothering me a lot this past year (2011). Before it just bothered me, disturbed me but seemed an issue out of reach. How do we fix a global situation of ‘Mini Adults’? How do we maintain children as children? It bothered me to the point that I wrote a poem about it, I will put it at the end of the blog.
But now I have come to the conclusion that it starts with me. It takes one to make a difference, to change one life, to impact another.
When I was younger, I idolised anyone that was older than me. I wanted so badly to be like them and I believe that feeling sits within all children. I realised that the life I am living is not one that I would want someone to copy (Not that I live a bad, sin-filled life). My life wasn’t one of a world leader. And that is what our lives aught to be, a life that a world leader would live. Not in riches and materialistic things, but in character. There is an old cheesy saying that says, ‘To the world, you may be just one person. But to one person, you may be the world.’ Live as though you may mean the world to someone and that that world may be a good one.
Are you with me? Let us make a change in our lives, to better the lives of the children around us. Let us mean every word that comes out of our mouths. Let us laugh for real. Let us cry for real. Let us love for real. Let us be real to give a real environment to those around us. Let us be world leaders and life changers.
Through the eyes of a child.
It is often said that to see the world,
In all of it’s beauty and innocence,
One must look at it,
Through the eyes of a child.
When I was a young girl,
This saying was as true as it will ever be,
Dad was the tallest, smartest and strongest,
Mum was the best cook and could make any sore better,
Through the eyes of me as a child.
Now as I grow up,
I am beginning to see the world,
In all of it’s raw state and devastation,
Through the eyes of an adult.
I begin to wonder what happened,
Where did the beauty and innocence go?
Has the world really become such a terrible place?
So comes the time when to see we must,
Look into the eyes of a child.
Children are growing up as adults,
Doing things behind parents’ backs,
Hoping it stays in secret,
Acting like the people around them,
Taking on the rudeness of the world,
The beauty and innocence was never there,
In the eyes of children today.
