It all started when a friend of mine in the business world told me that businesses that sell children's clothing in Albania are facing great difficulties. They are being forced to change their profile due to the ever-growing demand for products that, although targeted at children, are very similar to those for adults.
So this impression of mine, and I believe yours, that we are raising children as if "hardly" also has a major economic impact. I started reading and realized that not only is it directly related to the performance of businesses, but society has actually moved much further ahead. It's not just the rush to raise children that affects business.
Studies conducted in this regard make a somewhat frightening comparison by looking at the development of children compared to the progress of a business in its first steps (!)
On the one hand, children are now often exposed too early to experiences, responsibilities or information that traditionally belonged to older ages. This happens not only through the influence of technology and the use of the internet from a young age, but also from the pressure to achieve results as soon as possible through courses that develop talents and various skills from childhood. On the other hand, fashion and consumer society, the tendency for parents and children to adapt their clothes to each other and products, activities or clothing that are designed as if for adults but target children. (Have you heard, for example, about girls' 7th birthdays being celebrated in spas dedicated to them?)
Social studies now call this phenomenon "adultification" of children and draw parallels with trends in business.
New businesses are strongly oriented towards rapid, often aggressive, growth. This is often happening without going through the necessary stages of maturity.
New businesses start immediately with strong identities and marketing, sophistication from the very beginning, buy fake followers on social networks, choose influencers who justify neither the payment nor the product... they are building identities and brands much like children who display "adult" behavior, appearance, or vocabulary very early.
Children who are expected to behave like adults, and businesses, feel under pressure to be, or at least appear ready to act like, large companies, even though they lack the experience and capacity to handle this.
There are several common causes that drive this erroneous behavior.
Technology, once again, is blamed first. Instant information and the culture of appearance and comparison through social networks seem to play a key role in this rush to grow. The models that confront us every day as soon as we open our eyes are those of a quick success, like the perfect unicorn, full of color, competitive and dominating the market everywhere around the world.
Of course, all of this has many consequences. Studies highlight that the initial explosion of businesses with roots on the surface poses a great risk that the sand castle will quickly collapse and the unicorn will just as quickly turn into a horse with its horseshoes hanging off it.
But my biggest concern in these times when children are compared and studied like businesses, is certainly not the latter.
My greatest concern is for children. For those whom this pressure for premature maturity is condemning to the loss of childhood, playtime, natural emotional and social development, and every day is increasingly confronting them with problems of self-confidence, stress, and lack of proper engagement in socialization, as children.
While we are in such a hurry to raise our children with the (mis)belief that we are doing the best for them, we are still too late to actually do the best for them. You might say, but who is saying that?
Fortunately, more and more experts are seeking to change this. Personally, I find myself agreeing with Nordic researchers and specialists, who, not coincidentally, belong to countries where the level of education and child well-being is ranked as the best in the world.
They insist that the focus of child rearing should be on sustainable, natural, and paced development.
I really want to follow this method, I would humbly invite you too.
One step at a time, according to age, according to inclinations, according to conditions.
