Let Children Be Children

We’ve seen Beyonce’s privates up close, and we’ve had the word “twerk” thrust into our language. As our culture becomes desensitized to what used to be socially taboo, I wonder, where does it stop?

When my kids were in high school, it bothered me to learn that part of the cheerleading routine was for the girls to lean over, facing away from their audience and shake their behinds. It’s bad enough that their audience consisted of their peers. What made it worse, in my mind, was that these girls were shaking their booties at their teachers. With the all-too-common story about teachers, coaches, and people with authority being revealed as sexual predators, how can we condone this?

And maybe I’m reaching a little here, but how can it be all right for girls to shake their scantily covered butts while we chastise adults for looking?

All of this was bad enough back in the day when my concern was the teenagers. Now, however, I’ve been confronted with an even more disturbing trend. That is parading teeny boppers around in provocative clothing.  I’m not talking 10 or 11 year-olds. I’m talking about four- and 5-year-old girls, with the excuse of being a dance team, wearing bikini-style tops and short shorts.

I’ve recently seen photos of girls dressed in these costumes, proudly displayed on the social-networking pages of their adoring grandparents.

Since when is it okay to sexualize little girls? Where do we draw the line?

Maybe the grandparents don’t have much say in the raising of the newest generation, but I surely hope that the parents (yes, Dads, I’m talking to you) will start to stand up and insist on less revealing clothing on their little ones.

Please, let children be children. They will all grow up soon enough.