Too much too young

Out with 2007. In with the new year! Another addition to my already old old age! Sigh. I can't believe the time just flew by so fast. Turning 27 is so not what i am looking for this year.The more i think about my fading youth, the worrier i get. So many thoughts in my mind. One by one of my past classmates are getting married. To date, 6 of them this year… and counting! Just waiting for the invites to reach my doorstep.. Pressures mount.

The golden question becomes a common phase.. i just keep hearing it everywhere i go! "When are you getting married?" Arrgggggghhhh... why rush? I know when it is time for me to get hitched. I do NOT need all these constant reminder, thank you.Getting married is the least of my problem. What concerns me most is whether motherhood is the thing for me. Can i really care for my young? With so much that is happening right now, escalating peer pressure, western influences, pop idolism, etc! What will really happen to our young? Will they ever be a better individual under our guidance?

Our children are growing older younger and want to be adults when we still see them as kids. And as well as acting grown up they want to look like adults too. But is it all too much too young?

Time and time again, we heard of stories of teenage pregnancies, underage sex (the case of the 9yr old), anorexia and bulimia and many more. What is the world turning into? Are they growing too fast for us to play catch up? Found an article online about the same worrying trend in the states. A nation faced with an abundance of youngsters who've decided that childhood is over and it's time to achieve aesthetic perfection through dieting, surgery and sunbeds and experience the rites of passage of drink and sex.

Teenagers who started having sex from as young as 12 - and now say they've had so much sex they're bored with it. The “poke and run game”, a popular pastime for most teenagers in the west.

Based on a tv serial, a fourteen-year-old Caz tells the crew that she has been having sex since she was 12 because it makes her feel more confident. To date she's had eight partners but hasn't always used protection. Another spoke of her multiple sexual encounters with school boys just so to become popular among the “cool kids”. OMG!Which is more troubling? Casual sex or unprotected sex? Teenagers today think condoms are a thing of the past and prefer to use the morning-after-pill as contraception. I think parents have got to realise that they can't stop their kids, they can't tell them no drugs, no sex, no drinking. Teenagers want to explore what they want to explore. Casual dating relationships in the teen years are based upon infatuation, lust, and peer or social pressure. There is usually little to no thought about life-long commitment, as its purpose is mainly to have a good time.

And so… What are we, as adults, and future parents to be, to do to assist our young in making the RIGHT decision? How are we to guide them, when we do not hold the answers?

There is no such thing as a good parent or a bad one. It is more a matter of experience and the willingness to learn and do that matters. Life is full of mysteries and untold challenges. It is a lifelong learning that all of us have to go through and embrace it as it comes. All I can say is, to do our best and never give up on our own flesh and blood. Learn from our mistakes, from our past, and to give as much love to our young as possible.

What I strongly believe is that, with a strong family and love aplenty, all things evil could be kept under control or best, eradicated. And may we pray for a better future for ours and all the kids out there!