Ten Year Old With Drivers License!

Have you seen what I have been seeing around town? Ten year olds with driver’s licenses! I still cannot quite figure out how it happened. I mean heck, they can barely see over the steering wheel. I think some of them have got to be using booster seats while driving. They look so grown up sitting behind that wheel. It is so cute! Their parents are so proud too, taking pictures and bragging to others about the cars they are purchasing for their kids so they can fit in and be just like sixteen year olds. I can’t for the life of me figure out how so many parents can afford the cars or why they would want their ten year olds to have one. Seems to me they have a lot more growing up to do before they should be trusted behind the wheel of a car. Which actually got me to thinking…are their kids really even safe with a car of their own? Isn’t it kind of dangerous to put a 2,500 pound weapon in the hands of a ten year old? It actually sounds preposterous that parents would allow their ten-year-old children to grow up too fast by allowing them to drive. And thankfully I have not seen ten year olds driving cars.  But I am trying to prove a point, because I have seen parents allowing their children to grow up too fast. Even promoting or pushing them to grow up too fast. I do see younger children with other weapons of destruction in their hands.  Anything your child holds in his or her hands that gives them access to the Internet is a weapon. A lethal weapon that can reveal to your children far too many things that truly will drive them off into a ditch. A life altering ditch. I also see younger and younger children watching violent or sexually charged movies. Parents want to have bonding experiences with their young children so they take them to see movies that are intended for older audiences. I was mortified the last time I took my older teens to a PG-13 action movie because the theatre was filled with parents and young children. The violence was definitely something younger ones do not need to see. It is a challenge for our own family to expose our children to dangerous situations in an effort to train them to be launched into the real world…but when younger kids are exposed to situations, Internet and media not meant for them it really is just wrong. Just as wrong as it would be to hand them the keys to the car. Honestly…I am concerned for children today because society is trying to make them grow up too fast and sadly in the last few years I am seeing that parents are doing the same thing and I am befuddled. As parents we are supposed to protect our children from the pattern of this world, not succumb to it and embrace cultural influence on our young children. From one parent to another…I understand the pressure, but fight against it and let your kids be kids. Just say no to the influences that want to grow your kids up too fast. Keep the keys to the car far out of their reach until you have prepared them to safely drive.

*************

Have you checked out Tracey’s NEW {amazing} book yet?  Be the Mom was recently released and has been well received from moms all across the nation.  We’ll be talking more about it on the Family Matters Blog but until then, be sure to check it out today!