Parent Pressure

 For you created my inmost being; 
    you knit me together in my mother’s womb. 
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
    your works are wonderful, 
    I know that full well.

Psalm 139:13-14

  How far will I go to improve myself? That was the question that loomed in the air for almost every man and woman that has grown up in a society of trying to maintain perfection. As the technology has advanced and so did expectations, new questions seemed to arise. What we thought we’d never see seemed to happen before our eyes. Mothers seemed to ask their selves, how far will I go to perfect my child? Children in this generation are being born into a world with many high standards. They don’t go a breath without the world waiting for them to exceed their requirements. What can seem like nothing can be everything.

  Being a toddler is the last time of your life to be absolutely carefree before reality grows up with you. A wonderful time to screech with delight and run around naked in the backyard, not knowing the time of innocence is coming to a close even sooner then it did generations before. Have you been in the mall lately? Or turned on the TV? Everywhere we go, children’s clothes seem to be loosing less and less their charm along with the fabric. I have seen small girls walking around in mini skirts, something I wouldn’t even dare to wear myself. Society is selling children’s clothes with a certain flare that is being more and more introduced. Disturbingly sexy. These girls aren’t old enough to count but their skin is showing in the same places of a grown adult’s clothing. The fact that these items are being sold infuriates me because (certain) parents are putting blameless girls into inappropriate clothing. It’s putting a seed in their mind already that says ‘To be loved, you need to improve yourself.’ The image these young girls are receiving is that to rise up to expectations you must show yourself this way. It’s an evil industry that is exposing girls at a young and extremely frail age. We should not parade adolescents this way. They are meant to be children and our job is to protect them from it. Without realizing it, the media is feeding the voices of doubt in their head.

   Photoshop has gone beyond the media and into several family homes. It seems to have plagued every picture that is taken on a camera. Hours have been spent with stay at home moms editing their child on the screen. Maybe a little more blue to their eyes and brightening on their face. Children of the 21^st century will have a distortion of what their memories were. What used to be film is now digital and with all the amazing technology, why should we go back? I am a film baby, one of the last. It may be old school to see five mega pixel photographs, but it was raw. My pictures were not messed with or altered in anyway, they were simply what they were; memories. With this said, I’m not putting down family portraits. They are sweet and treasured snapshots, but what I’m expressing is the urge society gets to edit every single moment of their child. Toddlers are equipped with joyful, wide eyes and babies with a plump, curious face. These are the last days of their life before they develop the insecurities that come with any human being. Parents discourage their children about peer pressure, but then there is an unrealized pressure parents give off when they put together a child that looks how they want. It is a feeling of discontentment about their selves. As a rabidly changing world, the children of our generation need to know, more from action then words, that they are beautifully and wonderfully made. Without that, then they would fall into the dangerous world of deception.

  I remember as a child being self conscious about my weight or my hair. As little of five years old. The fancy clothes told me I was too chubby. The magazines told me I was unfit. That was years ago and it has gotten worse. The advertisers have gotten trickier and now they have so many more electronics to shove negativity in their face. It’s an exhausting challenge we will have to face our entire lives. As parents, brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts, friends and neighbors, it is our job to protect these girls from the evil that sneakily makes its way into your house. It is a constant battle and children need to be shielded from these objects and soft wares that try to take away their last chance of a wondrous childhood. They do not need to be perfected on a computer. They do not need to dress more appealing for the judgment of others. These are the last years before they will rip the camera from your hand and criticize their selves or eye the revealing tops at the mall. Innocence has gotten shorter and shorter as the world tries to pry into their minds and destroy it. Parents have the option to hold the door shut. Hold the door shut for as long as we can. It is all we can do.