Rushed Childhood Behind Teen Ills
* How ironic that the front page of the May 29 Metro section contains three related stories and a column that might shoot right past many readers (no pun intended).
One should consider the relationship among the articles “Tots and Tassels,” “High School Dropout Rates at Record Low” and “Teenage Drinking, Gang Injuries in S. County Plummet” and the Dana Parsons column “Volatile Mix of Pressure, Guns Not So Unbelievable, Teens Say.”
With the birth of a child, often the scenario goes like this: At 1, the baby moves from bottle to cup, at 2, from crib to bed.
By the age of 3 the child spends the night at a friend’s. Age 4 brings dance lessons, T-ball, taekwondo and numerous other sports and lessons. At the glorious age of 5, the little man and little lady graduate from preschool.
In a society that runs so fast it causes adult heads to spin, parents continually rush their children to grow up. Is it any wonder that dropouts, drugs, sex and killing among teens plague our headlines?
What is the incessant need that parents have to push their children out of the cradle and out of the door? What compels the mother of a 4-year-old to encourage a preschool romance, including hand-holding and unwanted kisses, as being cute and adorable and go into shock when her 13-year-old announces she’s pregnant?
Why does a father sit with his 5-year-old watching Indiana Jones and then shake his head despairingly when his 16-year-old is arrested for trying to kill a schoolmate?
Preschool graduation is hardly a “charming new trend” or even “overzealous parents creating high drama.”
It is one more thing that raises the temperature of the boiling pot, slowly causing our children to reach their emotional limits far before they know how to understand or control their emotions.
PAMELA CALDWELL
Orange
