Am I stopping my little girl from growing up!

[OlderMummy1]

I have always thought (rightly or wrongly) that children grow up much too fast these days and I think I am subconsciously trying to keep my babies as babies.

I am starting to really notice it now with my almost 3 year old DD. Some of her friends seem so 'old' for their years. Is this just the way children are these days? Am I doing my DD a disservice?

For example, at toddler group the other day a group of girls about my DD's ages were pretending to dress up like mummy and put on make up. My Dd has absolutely no idea what make up is as I rarely wear it, nor do any of the women in my family that my DD spends a lot of time with, only for very special occasions.

Her friends are also Frozen obsessed. My DD has never watched a film as I feel they are too old for her. She sometimes watches a bit of Peppa Pig or Postman Pat but I feel that she has many years ahead of her to enjoy films when she can understand them.

My DS is 7 months old and not really mobile yet so he still wears only baby grows which I have had a few 'jokey' comments about. I see some babies muffled up in jeans and hoodies and they just look so uncomfortable. I just want my baby to be comfortable and don't really care if he is 'trendy' or not.

We live a very outdoorsy, country sort of life so maybe that has something to do with it. Also, my DD hasn't started nursery yet (something else I'm putting off as I'm dreading it) so maybe it will all change then.

I do worry that i may be holding them back from growing up and that it may become an issue in the future. I don't want them to feel 'different'.

I understand your reasoning OP. I have a 3 year old DD that was given a copy of Frozen by my Mum. She does like it but she equally likes In The Night Garden still. When she was 3 and 2 months I took her to see the Live ITNG and her face lit up in wonderment as it was in a big dome and the lighting was magnificent. I have to admit I prefer that interest to Disney Fairys/Princesses as the modern films usually contain quite emotionally mature themes which she simply does not understand. My 7 year old DS struggles with understanding some of these themes.

I can see that It might make you think that it is making them 'grow up' too quickly, in the sense that you don't want your 3 year old to behave like a 6 year old. There is quite a big difference even between the average 5 year old and 3 year old. Of course a 5 year old is still very 'innocent' but they haven't just exited babyhood!

My DD is very 'fairy' orientated and enjoys playing in quite a 'girly' way - I was nothing like this so it is coming from her but despite owning some Tinkerbell DVDs, her preference for viewing is often 'Roly Mo' from a Cbeebies DVD or an episode from DS's old Teletubbies DvD or ITNG.

Since around 3 ds has loved watching films and definitely understands some aspects - and although a film might be long for the attention span (although not always) we are normally assigned characters from the film and act out scenes that ds loves which IMO shows he does understand what he is watching.