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Stop Adultifying our Kids
Where did we go wrong? Why are we more attracted to fake beauty than to natural beauty?
As the mother of Gen Z kids, I feel like I am currently losing the desperate fight against the humongous semi-truck that calls itself “popularity.” It is breaking my heart to see moms posting pictures of their daughters with boyfriends, flashing new acrylic nails and getting hair extensions — and I am not talking about twenty-year-old young women. These girls are barely out of 8th grade. These mothers who like to show off by over-glamorizing the “looks” of their young daughters are giving false messages to these girls. As adult women, we realize how damaging it is to our natural nails when we apply acrylics, how damaging it is for our natural hair when we apply hair extensions, and how constantly blow-drying our hair will dry it out and cause split ends. If our girls start doing all of these procedures when they are only 15, by age 40 these women will be left with no hair, no nails, and no self-esteem. AND YET…we still encourage our daughters to do these things!! We allow our girls to believe that their natural state is not “pretty enough,” and that they need to be artificially “improved.” And even if this is not the message we intend to send them, it is certainly the message they receive — and we fail to correct it.
