Are Children Growing Up Too Fast These Days?

Are children growing up too fast these days? Are we not letting children be children anymore? Why am I asking this? Today at school I heard second grade children talking about "dating" someone. That's what they call it now. They used to call it "liking" someone. When did this happen? How did this change? Is it just a matter of terminology? They hear the term on TV and they think the terms mean the same thing? Do the terms "dating" and "liking" someone mean the same thing to young children? Where do they get these ideas? Okay, maybe I'm overreacting. I didn't have a boyfriend until I was in the fourth grade, and I shouldn't base everything on my own experience, as thought my experience were more normal than theirs. I think I'm placing it in the context of our sexualized culture which was not that way when I was in second grade. There are some blatant differences. One difference between young children now and young children many years ago, of course, is the rapid change in our social and sexual mores from at least the 50s and 60s until now. I'm not great with researching statistics, but I do know that more children today have divorced parents than in the 1950s. There are varying reports on this, but, in general, that is undeniable. One report said that in the 1950s less than 20% of marriages ended in divorce, while now, about 50% of marriages end in divorce. Another rarity in the 1950s were cohabitating couples with children. Today, according to the Pew Research Center, by the early 2020s, approximately 3 million U.S. households were maintained by cohabitating, unmarried couples with children under 18 in the home. These are just two huge differences between how people conducted their lives in the 1950s versus how they are living now. I suppose I shouldn't wonder so much why children are confused about what dating is all about. I suppose some people reading this might want to criticize me for "judging" people. I'm not judging people. I am just pointing out changes in our social constructs that seem to point to the instability of marriage and family as it once was in this country--and, I suspect, in the world. Coupling is normal and natural for human beings, and I would not worry about young children talking about dating someone. I am sure it would do no good at all to tell them they are too young to be worrying about that, if, in fact, they are already worrying about it. I just wonder, like I wonder about many things these days, what does it all mean? Dying children's hair purple and pink or dying it at all makes no sense to me, and I am surprised there is no uproar about the chemicals they are putting on kids' heads. And, while on that subject, why so much emphasis on elaborate hair these days anyway? I have never seen so many dreadlocks and extensions on anyone of any age as I have seen in the last five years or so on elementary school children. Why? Is it the kids' idea or the parents' or both? Have you ever wondered why parents can't find clothes for little girls that don't show more of their body than is appropriate? Even on jeans in general, today a person, male or female can't bend over slightly without you seeing their rear anatomy, and nobody even seems to notice. Well, I notice, and some other people I've talked to have noticed. That was never a thing. Now it's hard to find jeans that have a waist at the waistline. Why? And don't get me started about these teenage boys with their pants down in the back. I mean, seriously, what is wrong with people these days? Am I the only one who feels this way about it?