Is your child a KGOY?

[emkana]

\link{http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,176-2208384,00.html\article here, especially second part}

My dd is five and still very innocent, but she doesn't seem much different to her classmates.

On the other hand I walked past a school playground the other day (not dd's school) where seven or eight year olds were discussing Big Brother.

And I read about an eight year old in the paper who has repetitive strain injury from texting too much... had her first mobile at age six.

I'm just not sure what the "reality" is, and what's the exception.

[emkana]

Well, that obviously didn't catch anybody's imagination, did it?

[keziah]

Caught my eye emkana! Sneaked off to computer but should be making dinner. Just quickly though - its a subject close to my heart. Don;t want to sound like mad hippy but hate all the consumer thing for kids. I want the ~Swallows and amazons childhood for mine and they don't seem that out of place. Eldest is 8. Tv all but banned here and seem to escape most consumerism that way. They havent got left behind socially yet (i don't think!).
not sure the article can be reality? or am i just naive?

[geekgrrl]

:) My dd will be 7 next month and is also very innocent still - actually, it's becoming a bit noticable now and dh and I are getting slightly concerned that her classmates will notice too (it doesn't help that she's the youngest in her year and after the summer hols will be in a class of 7-9 year olds).
She still watches Cbeebies and that kind of thing. On Wednesday it will be her turn to bring a CD she likes to school - she is planning on bringing '20 Greatest Nursery Rhymes' - is it a disaster waiting to happen? Should I try to get her into SClub7 or Girls Aloud before Wednesday?!
She's also the only one who hasn't seen any Harry Potter or Star Wars films apparently.

[emkana]

The article does seem to be a bit OTT, but maybe I'm just naive too?

[edam]

Hmm. Ds is too little for me to have much of a clue about this but I don't know any 3yo girls who live up to the description in this article.

[SenoraPostrophe]

well it sounds like the usual journalistic paranoia dressed up as social analysis to me.

I mean, some of the fads of recent years are more teenager-ish than child-ish but in essence they are the same as the fads we had when I was 7. In my class everyone had to have a snorkel coat(there's a name for them, but I've forgotten)/those clacker things/a big bag of elastic bands/a plastic ping together bag. Now it's trainers/a mobile etc but also scoobie thingies and presumably some other less worrying fads that don't get in the papers. I don't really see a major qualitative difference between them. It is possible that we give in more often than the previous generation did but that's all, I think.

Now I'll sit back while anyone who realiseds that my kids are only 4 and 2 accuses me of unbelievable naivety.

[bogwobbit]

Well, the kids in my son's school playground still seem to spend most of their time running round playing tig, but we live out in the sticks instead of London so maybe that's the difference.
I do agree with what she said about it being the parents to blame. Who's buying all these 8 year olds mobiles and jeans with 'I'm a slut' or whatever embroidered on them, after all?

[SenoraPostrophe]

it's not politically incorrect to say that there are broadly different behaviour patterns among children of different classes, cat. You may be right.

[peasinapod]

Mine still plays tag he is seven . he will not get a mobile till he gets to secondary school

[charliecat]

My dd is 8 and is the only one of her friends not to have a mobile FGS...the conversation the other morning , and it was started by one of them whos 7 not 8 yet, was "Alaina texted me this morning...wear a summer dress and white socks...I texted back im already dressed in that duurr" I was just a bit I know that one of the mums says she keeps in touch with her dad with it which is fair enough. but theres no way I would be coughing up for dd1 to text people at 8 years old. NO WAY.
Last week I realised dd1 is the only person in the school playground with clarks T-bar shoes on.
She was over the moon to get a pair of fashionable things that she cant run in as they will fall off....LOL

[Rhubarb]

Here the little girls all have their eyebrows plucked at dd's age (6), they wear make-up to parties and designer clothes, baby perfume is a hot seller!

I don't understand why a child has to have a mobile phone. If they are going somewhere on their own then lend them yours! Why buy them their own fgs??? They watch too much television, my nieces used to watch Eastenders from the age of 7. They have thongs to wear now, t-shirts that say explicit things on them, boob tubes for little girls, etc.

We expect our children to grow up far too soon, we tell them about sex far too soon, we turn them into mini-adults and then we wonder why teenage pregnancy is so high, why more and more children are turning to drink and drugs at an early age, why there is so much competition and bullying at schools.

Don't you just despair of society at times?

[AtterySquash]

I live in a bit of inner London that is a real mix - our few streets are terribly m/c but 1/4 mile up the road (where dd's school is), is totally not. As a result, dd exposed to all sorts in terms of both class and ethnicity and generally the better for it, i think. Some days she seems v sophisticated to me and completely at ease with all the KGOY stuff, at others a total innocent.

i thought it was very sweet when she told me her favourite pop dinger was Michael Rosen.

[joelalie]

My DD should be OK then. I never chat about Jade and her weight - not entirely sure I'd know her if saw her. Don't have a mobile phone myself. Am shamefully unfashionable when it comes to clothes. So If it's down solely to parental influence all should we well.... but I don't think it is. DD's 2 best friends at home are 11 and already have the phones and the celebrity obsessions. I don't think my influence stands that much chance

[tamum]

I read this too. Interesting point, cat. I think it must be partly self-perpetuating, too- dd is 8, she goes to an inner city state primary (admittedly with a strong middle class element) and none of her friends has a mobile as far as I know, they all wear Clark's shoes, all play tig, and skipping is the big thing at the moment. It's not nearly as bad as I feared.

[MamaG]

It makes me very sad that childhood slips away so quickly, they seem to be in such a rush to grow up :(

We live in the sticks and don't see it, but we moved from Leeds almost 2 years ago and DID see it much more there.

Just want them to enjoy being kids, doing kids stuff really.

[christie1]

girls as young as 7 in my dd's school are getting highlights and changing the colour of their hair. It's crazy. I saw a teenaged girl going today with a very tight, low, low cut white t-shirt showing off her ample assets that read "Daddy's Girl" and I thought, any daddy that wants his daughter to wear that t'shirt, I need to be calling social services as somthing is seriously wrong. I have a no belly button rule in my house, no t-shirt or pants that show a belly button. I know that is the style but too bad. DD has nice clothes and is well dressed but, not always in the latest fashions if they are not appropriate for her age.