Is this really what primary school kids are like?

My friends like this with her girl. It makes me really sad. I feel like childhood is gone so quickly. I have two boys 3 and 5 and the 5 year old is ‘young’. I hope he stays like this

Only the ones whose parents don’t control their social media access appropriately.

Not around here, I imagine (possibly without reason) that this is more common in cities and built up places, but I've not seen it at all personally. It's always sad when people rush their children to leave their childhood behind.

I think it’s a lot more common these days. Just to add balance though it’s my DD 11th birthday today and she has had Lego and some Pokémon stuff, football kit.

I don’t think young kids should be putting that sort of skincare on their face either, it’s not needed and could well damage the skin depending on what it is in it!

for some reason some people seem in a rush for their kids to grow up.

River island do have a pretty good kids section so that wouldn’t phase me, but I am uncomfortable with the whole makeup/designer brands things, and the emphasis on being beautiful feels like the child is being sexualised. I know someone who keeps posting pics of her 11yo DD in crop tops and bikinis with a full face of makeup and I’m a bit 😬 about that too. They’re grown ups for a long time. Let them be kids while they still can.

Have you been in SpaceNK at all recently??

When I saw "birthday", I thought you were going to post about 8yos being a bunch of little savages who caused mayhem, walloped each other and trashed the party venue.

No, this is not what 8yos are like ime. Lots of them are still fairly feral, high-spirited and boisterous, but the ones I know are still playing games like "Let's try to hit each other with our bags. 10 points for a direct hit" rather than doing skin care and prancing around in expensive gear.

I think there is a lot of social media influence here - if young girls have access to tiktok or instagram they will see a lot of content in the form of 'get ready with me' and 'my daily routine' type videos, all using expensive brands. It normalises the idea that young people should be using these things. When I was young there was advertising for luxury makeup brands of course, but they weren't targeted at kids the way social media can be.

I think it's fine and important to resist it, even when kids are asking for it. An eight year old girl will destroy her skin barrier using harsh products, and it's a lot of money for something objectively unnecessary.

Some are. I wouldn't say it's all of them at all, we still have plenty of pony loving, tree climbing girls around here but there are some who have been very "tiktoked".

There’s always one child in the class that’s ’grown Up’ and a mini version of their parents but most 8year old still like Barbie, Claire’s and having a bed time story!

It’s sad but quite common.

I'm not sure if this is typical but I get the impression it is and thank god my DD is an adult now. I wish kids could just be kids for a bit longer.