Motivational Coping & Healing

Children seem to be growing into mini-adults with each passing generation. During the Second World War, psychologists began looking more deeply into child psychology. They found that children from working-class parents can be a factor in why children grow into mini-adults. Since the Second World War, world society has picked up labor in the workforce, and it reflects through the children. Additional factors that cause children to grow up faster include: 

• Pressure on academics. 

• The environment in which they grow up. If unstable, a child is forced to take on more responsibility than peers. 

• Children dress like mini-adults, which makes them mimic adults  

• Changes in summer camp programs that are more specialized and focused. Children are not children but mini-adults in conference-like settings.  

• Traveling across the country alone can induce the feeling of abandonment. 

• Media, books, films, etc, portraying young people in older roles. This also forces the child actor to play a role older than them, which can have concerns regarding identity vs role confusion.  

• Teenagers are quick to rush and experiment in adult activities such as sexual activities, drinking, and doing drugs.  

All of these play a significant factor in the hurried child and them growing up fast. The consequences of a hurried child include not doing as well as an adult, an increase in teenage pregnancies, increased mental health problems, homelessness, and abusive situations.

On the other side is A “lawnmower parent”— a parent who goes to great lengths to prevent their child from experiencing adversity, stress, or failure. When their children have to face these struggles on their own as they leave home and go to college or enter a career, they are less likely to handle the pressure and challenges as well as they would have if their parents had provided them more space to make decisions and learn how to cope on their own” (Santrock, 2022, p.380).

There needs to be a balance between over-parenting and under-parenting. I am an example of a child whose mother under-parented. I grew up fast, drinking and having intimate relationships at the age of 13. I now struggle with anxiety and depression and have gotten into a few abusive relationships due to a lack of guidance from a responsible adult as a child.  

What are your thoughts?

References  

Santrock, J. (2022). A Topical Approach to Lifespan Development (11th ed.). McGraw-Hill Higher Education (US). https://yuzu.vitalsource.com/books/9781264058976