Make-Up

   Before the semester ended my roommates and I had a brief conversation about when we all started to wear make-up, based on the disturbing images of a children's pageant, where the little girls, looked their age from the neck down (sometimes, depending on what they were wearing), but from the neck up, they looked at least 20 years older. 

  I remembered that conversation yesterday in church. My supervisor and I were sitting on the edge of a row in church (and those of you who know me well, know why), when a woman and her two daughters came in around 30 minutes into the service and literally shoved us over in the row. Haha. I guess there's a first time for everything right? 

  The one daughter, about nine, was decked out in adult sunglasses that were too big for her face and had the adult attitude to go with it. The littler one, about five, was wearing a lot of make-up. When I was her age I had this brand of play make-up call Tinkerbell. It was a beautiful thing. You would literally have to apply the stuff for hours straight for it to really be noticeable. And I kept those same cosmetics until my mother made me replace them with "real" make-up in 8th grade, not that I ever wore much of the Tinkerbell or the real stuff. 

    But this little girl was covered in lipstick and mascara, making her look very provocative and older then she was. It made me reflect on the ideals that we are teaching our children, both little boys and little girls. When will we let kids be kids and in such a way that when they flirt with the adult world, such as playing dress up, that they know its just play. Children are losing their childhood, their time to grow, at an alarming rate, and I sometimes wonder if parents not only allow this to happen, but encourage it. Thoughts?