Why the Rush?

I rarely, as in 3 or 4 times a year maybe, go to the Mall of America.  This week - twice.  Once to walk with a friend, which was great as the below temps made walking outside impossible.  Today after discussing several options I agreed to take Ella and Jacob to the mall and purchase a small lego toy if they walked around it with me twice which is equal to a mile.  So off we went.

As soon as we entered the doors we could see that there was obviously a cheerleading competition of some sort going on.  Girls in too short skirts with thick make up, including very young girls, maybe 5 or 6 yrs. old, big bows in their hair.  It's an odd juxtaposition to see the girlish ponytails with little girl bows, but adult faces with their make up.

There were several disturbing scenarios I observed.  One was a family who had matching T-shirts reading Jacey's Mom, Jacey's Dad, Jacey's Bro and lastly Jacey's Man.  JACEY'S MAN!!  These kids were maybe 16 yrs. old.  What were her parents thinking?  Don't even get me started on referring to this  kid as a man.  Sheesh.

I've never understood why some people seem to be in such a rush to have their children grow up.  Childhood is an incredibly short time.  We should cherish it and stretch it just as far as we possibly can enjoying every last second of it, not hurry our children into an early adulthood.

It made me oh so grateful for my level headed daughter.  When we arrived today we parked and had to walk through the store Forever 21, a store that would be very attractive to most girls her age.  We couldn't walk through the store fast enough for her, except maybe when she's passing the American Girl store.  Nothing there turned her eye.

I had to beg her to try on hoodies in a different store, but she tried on the first one I handed to her and she said, "that's fine".  There are times I wish she would take an interest in girly type things or the clothes she wears, but I'll take her lack of fashion interest over a girly girl any day and I will squeeze every last second out of her much too quickly waning childhood.  Adulthood can wait.