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I was dumbfounded. Of course, even without reading the glossy gossip magazines I had noticed the tendency celebrities have for dressing their ridiculously-named offspring in ridiculously expensive labels, but I had always shrugged this off. I mean, everyone knows being that rich and famous drives a person insane. According to this article, though, increasing numbers of (what I’ll stereotypically term) ‘ordinary’ people are choosing to dress their children like they themselves would like to be dressed. There are even whole websites designated to the world of children’s fashions - like the whole growing up business isn’t stressful enough as it is! Heels and mini-dresses for seven-year-olds? No, thank you.
I don’t understand it. The whole point of being a kid is that you can get away with wearing a pair of jeans until they fall apart. Or insist on wearing that certain red dress every Tuesday. You can run around with your jumper tucked into your leggings and nobody cares. If anybody over the age of eight did that they would be regaled with looks of horror by everyone, causing them to become convinced their “dress sense” is sick and wrong and end up with the self-esteem of a peanut. One of the best things about being a kid is that you don’t have that pressure to look “good” all the time. No pressure = happier childhood.
Of course, when you’re older you will look back and think, “oh my god, why did you let me out like that?” but that is part of growing up. If my eight-year-old self looked more fashionable than my twenty-year-old self I would feel distinctly depressed. Looking like a twat as a kid means we can look back and feel better about ourselves now. If we start off as fashionistas, where the hell do we go from there?
As a child I ran around in homemade waistcoats and jumpers knitted by a grandma. I was warm, I was comfortable. I could get as muddy as I liked and jump in the sea fully-clothed if I liked, without fear of too much remonstration. Plus, with the time I saved not worrying about what to wear , I could build more Lego houses. It was the life.
What is happening to childhood? The Victorians practically invented the concept, so perhaps we are now returning to a sort of pre-Victorian state; it seems to me that increasingly children are expected to be mini-adults: to look like them, act like them, and - if the increasing levels of private tuition for primary school kids is anything to go by - achieve like them too. Is it a sign of our age that children appear to have a shorter and shorter “childhood”? Everything about society today points toward an impatience. Attention spans are apparently decreasing due to the bombardment of information, language is shortening due to “text speak” and people are looking for the quick and easy answers to almost everything, from cooking and dating to education.
Is it really much of a surprise that parents appear to be impatient for their children to grow up? I suppose it is easier to treat your children as adults because then you do not have to try and be a child again. Instead of spending time making clothes for them, it is easier to let “children’s fashion” dictate what they should be wearing. Buy them expensive clothes, and you’ll terrify them into never getting dirty, and that is fine, right? After all, if they don’t get dirty you don’t have to worry about cleaning the whole thing up.
Call me cynical, but I am worried about this trend. So, it might only be the reserve of the “rich” at the moment, but that doesn’t mean it won’t spread. And if we don’t allow our children to be children anymore, well, what are they? What kind of adult will be created then?
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