They Really ARE Growing Up Sooner...

Just when you thought there were no more ways to yank the youth out from under our childrens' feet comes a very interesting study on puberty in girls.

Your eyes are NOT playing tricks on you. Seems that girls in 3rd and 4th grades are beginning to develop, and we're not talking about their social skills or cursive writing abilities. Girls who are barely out of the "Osh Kosh B'Gosh" stage are showing signs of puberty.

Now back "in the day", we young males of the "tween" age group were in AWE when a young girl exhibited some outward sign of budding feminity, because it was such a RARE event. In our 6th grade, the only thing differentiating the boys from the girls was the clothing. Girls didn't go around looking like mini-streetwalkers with "painted-up" faces and a sinful air of debauchery (they don't even KNOW what that means anyway). They dressed modestly, and in most every case were more attentive, more adept and better behaved than their male counterparts.

Apparently, now the female BODY is catching up to the female BRAIN (which develops sooner than the male brain...sorry,guys) in that respect.

Today, it's a whole new ballgame. Girls parade around in fashions that would make most people blush. T-shirts with suggestive logos and phrases are snuggly pulled over training bras with hipster jeans, painted nails and pierced ears. They have THONGS for PRETEENS for God's sake!

WTH is WRONG with this picture, people?

My wife doesn't even wear thongs (says it's too much like dental-flossing your butt, and I will defer to her assessment on that).

Why do these young girls pursue this manner of "style" these days? Because everyone ELSE is doing it is the "usual" response. Well, that and overly-permissive parents. And we can lay a TON of the blame on those marketing gurus of the world, intent on showing off your daughter's "wares" for everyone to ogle. And it's all in the name of PROFITS...but at what cost to our chldren?

We cannot neglect the fact that these young girls ARE growing up at an incresingly YOUNGER age. What was once a rarety or even an oddity is fast becoming the norm. A landmark study done back in 1997 (UNC, Chapel Hill School of Public health) said that among 17,000 girls on North Carolina, almost HALF of blacks and 15% of whites had begun breast development by AGE 8! But it gets better. A new "8" is defined by this latest study at Ithaca Univ. as being 7 years of age for white girls, and 6 for black girls.

(Holy menses, Batman!).

Now without getting into all the biological jargon, lets say there are 3 phases of puberty in women:

1) breast development,

2) pubic hair growth, and

3) menstruation,

...with the last phase being the "most memorable" for women (their term, not mine).

The study cites that the age of the onset of menses has dropped by about one month per decade over the past 30 years.

Now why is all this happening in the first place?

The researchers are saying it's due to our ENVIRONMENT (and we're not talking global warming, so sit your ass down, Mr. Gore!) and it's impact on us. We're a cleaner society. We bury or dead deeper than in the 19th century. We have better preventive medicine such as innoculations than we had in ages past. All these factors help to secure a better quality of living.

Other researchers are saying it's the very lifestyle ITSELF that has the greatest influence, noting that childhood obesity has much to do with hormonal changes (fatty tissue is a source of estrogen) in the young female body. They also state that stressful situations, such as divorce or peer pressure can contribute significantly.

Again, it's about lifestyle.

And we also have to consider the GENETIC factor, like did your mother develop early. So we're damned if we DO, and damned if we DON'T, right?

Pediatric endocrinologists (the guys studying all those hormones in youngsters) are saying this is normal. Well, I find that just a tad disturbing, given the increasing number of sexual offenders out there. I sure wouldn't like the fact that my daughter could be watched (or stalked) even more now that she's growing breasts by age 7 or 8.

That should bother ANY parent.

Marcia Hermann-Giddens (adjunct professor at UNC, Chapel Hill) said "That as far back as 1960s, the decline in the age of maturity has crossed the line from positive reasons, such as better diets, to negative ones, such as eating too much, exercising too little, and the vast unknowns of pollution". She goes on to say that: "But with all the estrogen-likeelements in he environment, it's virtually impossible to study. There's no place to find an unexposed population."

So move over Barbie and Easy-bake Oven...say "hello" to Ms Estrogen.

And, not to sound alarmist, but I suppose the curiosity of playing "doctor" between 7 year olds will never happen again (while we legislate some inane predatory laws against 2nd graders).

The girls will be going to the REAL doctor instead.

"Kids will be kids" used to be the phrase in my day. Sorry, but it looks like even THAT is now close to extinction. Our kids are losing what it MEANS to BE a kid...and we cannot turn this plane around and head back...we're far beyond that now.

We've reached that point of no return.

I suppose the "Age of Innocence" will be the NEXT victim.