Today s topic is the "hurried" child. I do think that children today are hurried toward adulthood. Exposure to mass media with all the access our kids have to sex, violence and world events makes them more aware of adult issues than in the past. Our children spend so much of their free time on the internet or watching television where in the past kids spent more time playing outside. We can t just send our kids to the park or outside to ride their bikes, most of our kids activities take place with adult supervision because we fear what could happen, the world seems a scary place even to us. We put our kids in organized sports to make up for it but the competitive nature and parental involvement changes the dynamic and may actually add pressure. We want our kids to be the best at everything, sports, academics. and recreational activities. Everything is about what comes next leaving little time to experience and enjoy right now. In high school we expect our kids to know what their career path will be. We encourage them to take college courses early and are constantly pushing for the next big thing. In the past I think kids were hurried in a different way. Children were expected to contribute. If your parents were farmers or shop keepers you worked for the family at a young age. If you had younger siblings you were expected to provide child care. But children s lives were more immediate. The impact of world events didn t factor in unless it was right in front of you. Today s children are raised with a knowledge of terrorism, natural disasters, and unstable economics. In addition to the constant pressure to be the best children are exposed to a level of violence and world instability that their young minds are not fully able to process. Exposure to grown up issues along with expectations and schedules that would stress out most adults has left our children with heightened levels of anxiety. They are beginning to show grown up problems at earlier ages, depression, insomnia, even stomach ulcers. Maybe its time for us to slow down and let our children be just that children.