They Have 84 Years To Deal With That: Why Are You Stealing Their Innocence Now?

 Let’s say our babies are blessed to live to be 100, hopefully longer but let’s go with 100 years old for argument's sake.

Especially in this day and age, I think we can agree that our children are exposed to already know way too much about adult matters by the time they are 16. To me, that is still a baby but we all know by 16, they have probably already had sex, drank, and heard way too much about adult situations.

So by 16, their innocence is gone.

That means they have 84, EIGHTY-FOUR YEARS, to deal with this not-so-great, sometimes great, crazy, hectic, greedy, thing we call life and all that brings with it.

WHY do we try and strip our children of their innocence before that?

If they have 84 years to be an adult, why can’t they have 16 years to be a kid?

This is a topic that I will forever stand strong against. Now I am just a bonus mom so maybe my opinion is completely invalid here but I’m going to talk on it anyways! We cannot shelter our kids forever. With technology as it is and the fast-paced world we have it is almost impossible to shield our kids how we want to. So they do learn things fast. They hear things, they eavesdrop, and they sneak around. It’s what kids do, especially teenagers. And as the world progresses, the morals go down and kids aren’t taught that they shouldn’t have sex at 12! So this leads to children losing their innocence pretty young. That is such a shame to me.

Now we can’t stop the world, but we can stop our home.

The home is the foundation of a child. They learn here and then go out to build their walls. It is our job to build that foundation the best we can to help them have the right tools to build their walls alone. Here are my statements for you:

• Do not put your kids in your business. They do not need to know your adult hatred, your relationship issues, your sex life, or you fighting with your spouse.
• They do not need to be told inappropriate sexual jokes and comments: it doesn’t matter if they understand it or not. Keep your dirty jokes to your husband.
• They do not need to know your money struggles. They did not ask to be born. You chose that. It is not their fault or their responsibility to hold your financial burden. Studies show that when you handle every situation with your kid by expressing how you don’t have the money, you are teaching your kids that money is their worth.
• Do not put your hatred of others onto your kids. If there is someone that it is simply in their best interest, and safety, to not talk to, simply explain to them they may say hello but we must not spend time with them. Your petty grudges are not their burden. You should not talk about how much you hate people around your kids. Kids are born with the purest love. All you are doing is ripping that away from them when you teach them petty hatred.
• Your vices are your vices. I personally believe after your twenties, you shouldn’t have vices that rule your life anymore but that’s me! Do not teach your children that they need wine, beer, weed, God forbid drugs, and any other vices to handle their lives. Teach them communication and help them understand that healthy communication can be a huge factor in handling life. From a personal standpoint, back when I used to drink, it was to handle my feelings that I wasn't able to tell anyone about due to a toxic relationship.

Our kids have 84 years to be adults. They have 84 years to worry about money, spouses, drugs, drinking, sex, jobs, and eeeeeverything else life throws at us. Why can’t they have at least 16 years to be a kid whose only concern is school, video games, texting friends, and what clothes to wear? Some things can’t be helped. But most can if you simply put yourself aside and do it.

Thank you for reading!