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"And the greatest of these is Love"
Exploitation of Children
In the early 1800's, children were regarded as adults in little bodies. They were expected to earn a living and behave with all the manners an adult would. Hence, horrid working conditions in factories resulting in kids missing fingers, limbs or having a childhood. We also see the begining of the phrase "Children should be seen and not heard". I read about a family living on the plains around 1890 describing how the two-year-old would walk several miles to run errands for the family. Imagine, being two, and instead of playing with toys you were expected to earn your keep. Needless to say, child labor laws were a Goddess send to the development of healthy childhood years. Children were given permission to be kids again, and everyone was happy. Now the pendulem is swinging back towards the little adult image. Kids fight for the latest fashions to look "grown up". It's a trend I am fighting tooth and nail to not reach my own child, but I do know it is a losing battle. After all, I cannot go with her when she plays at a friend's house to enforce my rules. (Besides, that would be rude of me)
There are a few unbending beliefs I DO have regarding children. The firmest is that children are way too exploited in our society. They are used to sell cars, tires, toys, furniture...the list goes on. While it may be cute to have a naked child run across the screen, I sit back and think how many pedophiles are taping segments like that for their own personal use. Anybody see the soap commercial? I even disagree with a cute teen wrapped in a towel selling bath soap. Do we really need this type of advertising?? I begin to wonder what is really being sold here. We all know the phrase "sex sells". Now, mix that in with kids and you get a combination only a therapist can work out.
Another belief is that at no time. Ever. Is a child to be a cast member in a horror or slasher flick. Ever. I fail to see how you can make a child, with an overactive imagination, understand that it is all make believe. Besides, if the film is rated so that the under-13 crowd cannot see it, why are kids cast in it? I think of the films "The Omen" or "The Shining". I realize that the concept of "innocence" is being explored, but c'mon. How does a kid deal with the fact he is being portaid as the AntiChrist? Maybe it is all fun and games, and the money may be good, but I always wonder what those kids dream about at night.
Okay, now how about fashions. I quit buying at one of the major retailing stores about three years ago when the only children's clothing options available to my then six year old resembled something the "happy hooker" would wear. My daughter is not allowed to wear a bikini until she is sixteen. Maybe. And she is definitly way too young for skimpy skirts and tiny tops that barely cover the midriff. I tell my daughter everyday to be a kid while she has the chance. It's hard advice to give when everything around her is screaming at her to grow up fast and hard. Some of the clothes make me wince to see them. My child is never available to be a sex object, thank you very much, so the clothing executives better get on the ball or I will start making my own clothes. And since I hate (I mean really hate) to sew, that only goes to show the current state of affairs with clothing for kids.
I realize many people would love to tell me to "get with the times", but I have to wonder if more than innocence is being lost here. What about free will? If we are taught at an early age that we are subject to what the world wants of us, versus what we want, where will it land us? Our most precious resource is children. At least that is what all those bumperstickers keep claiming. And being the perfect idiots we are....we are mining our resourse out of existance.
To flip through the pages of my BOS faster...
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Brightest of Blessings