Hello readers, welcome to the counselor's corner. Our youth grow up so fast these days don't they? I'm here this time around to look at why they grow up so much faster than they used to, and their challenges are so much harder than the challenges we had when we were youth. I believe that it is the fault of society that our youth are facing what they are facing. Society dictates that we raise kids faster now. I will take this from the cradle and work my way up, so please bare with me. The world wants for us to have them eating table food by a certain age, have them rolling over, crawling, and then walking by a certain age. We have to have them potty trained by a certain age, we have to have them knowing how to tie shoes and read before they go into preschool. They make flash cards for toddlers so they can learn faster! Haven't you seen these Leap Frog games and things like these? Teaching like this used to come from home, and done at a slower pace so the child knew the stuff, not just blow through it and never understand it. All the while, parents say, "Oh they just grow up so fast!" Now let's move into school. Discipline that was not taught in the home has to be picked up somewhere, so we have stressed out teachers that would rather teach your child to add and subtract, having to teach them to be quiet in a school room. All the while, parents are saying," I don't know where they learned that." While in the meantime parents are so stressed out with their own lives that they have no free time for the kids. Now in school, to keep up with society's rules, we teach them more, and teach them faster than we did before. Kids are taking Algebra in the sixth grade! I didn't get Algebra until the ninth grade. There were no such things as scientific calculators being used for testing when I was in school, we had to do everything the hard way. Let's see one of our young people make it through the math section of the SAT with no calculator. Or take a class with some of the math teachers I had and pull that calculator out. The calculator would have gotten tossed out of the window. The whole time they are in school learning and developing faster, they are maturing and growing faster as well. So by the time they are high school age, most of them are ready in their minds for sex, marriage, smoking, drinking, going to night clubs, and things like that. Now that's when the parents are saying, "Whoa, you aren't old enough for that, you aren't that grown up." Here is the kicker, they are old enough. In the way that society has helped you raise your kids, by the time they get into the age range of 14-17, they have matured enough to be considered 18-21. I actually had a talk with a 17 year old that was telling me the plan to safe drinking and club hopping!! The problem was beyond that she was out doing this stuff in the first place, but that she already had a very responsible plan figured out! So how should I combat that? The means are there, and so is a very smart plan of how to stay safe. Parents, this is for you. I'm saying this as a youth counselor. Take your kids back from society. The youth of today have no business dealing with what they are dealing with. It is not your fault, but it is within you to do something about it. Slow them down, it used to be that it took a community to raise a child, now you probably don't know your neighbor. If they said anything to help you with your kid, you'd sue them whether the intentions were good or not. You, as parents need to raise the child and not let society do it for you. Don't raise your kids by the VCR or DVD player. Raise them with the love of God and the Bible. Don't let society dictate you, you dictate society. One child at a time. Thank you for listening.
