I recently took part in a program sponsored by LeapFrog on my other blog, this is kat, wherein I hosted a party for my daughters and a group of their friends, where they all played with LeapFrog toys. LeapFrog then sent me a bunch of brand-new toys to donate to the charity of my choice (my daughters and I chose the Calgary Women’s Shelter).
While writing about the toys (which were, incidentally, excellent) I commented several times that my daughters seemed to have outgrown certain types of toys and characters, in particular: Princesses. My youngest is only six, but she (and all her girlfriends, too) definitely see Princesses as being “babyish” or “for little girls”. I know that the Princess brand is marketed very strongly at the preschool girl set, but there is still a lot of Princess-y stuff out there targeted to school-aged girls – take, for example, the Princess game cartridge for the Leapster 2 that my daughter and her pals tested: it’s recommended for “ages 4-7”.
Here’s a taste of what appeals to my six year-old daughter:
(yes, that specific pink guitar…no, she doesn’t know how to play guitar)
Clothes. H&M, preferably (thank goodness, because you can’t argue with those prices).
So…what’s the deal? Should my six year-old still be obsessed with Jasmine and Aurora and Belle? Is she watching too much YTV and not enough Treehouse? What do you think?
I’ll sign off with this picture of her in June on her sixth birthday, in her full Hannah Montana costume, including hairpiece and guitar:
And yes, she tells me she’s “not exactly that into” Hannah Montana anymore. *SIGH*
Growing up too fast?
Well I have a 6 yr old boy & he loves all of the same shows as you daughter. I also have a 3 yr old who is still very much into Treehouse & they cannot watch TV together, as my older son will complain that those shows are for babies. Thank goodness we have more than one TV! I often feel VERY guilty that I have turned my kids into TV junkies so I have been trying very hard to limit the TV watching lately. I also think these shows were a bit too mature for him but I will watch with him at times and there is always a good moral to the episode & they can be funny. I’d much rather these shows thatn some of the violent cartoons on Teletoon – which I have banned.
My 10 year old daughter is into what your 6 year old is into…I wonder more if it’s what is being marketed and not necessarily age-related. She is almost over Hannah Montana as well, but is that more because that craze has been oversaturated so it’s no longer interesting no matter what age you are? There is a fine line however with what is acceptable material for kids so I would just make sure I knew what the shows were about. Are our kids growing up too fast? Absolutely. I see tons of examples from television, fashion, music, language, etc. but when our kids’ lives are saturated with it, it’d difficult to do anything about it without isolating them. I think the best thing is to talk to them about it.
I always find myself torn about this topic. My daughter is 7.5 and she’s definitely back and forth about what she likes and doesn’t. She’s been saying she is past the Princesses for several years now, but when we had the chance to get tickets to Disney Princesses on Ice last month, she enjoyed it quite a bit (as did her little brothers).
Now it’s all about High School Musical, Barbies, the Wii, her Maplelea doll and horses. She also loves music so she gets exposed to a wide range that way, too. It’s funny – her friends that she hangs out with are all either only children or eldest girls and they are all happily still playing with Barbies, dressing up and acting out skits and dance performances, playing with horses and other games. But the few friends she has that are either a year or two older, or that have older female siblings, are pushing far more into the tween and teen-age stuff. (they also seem to often come with an inordinate amount of snark and attitude, if you ask me, but that’s another topic altogether)
I guess this is all to say that I’m happy she’s still enjoying some things that are age-appropriate but she’s definitely moving into more mature things. Kids are being pushed to grow up faster now than they did when we were young and, while we need to accept that to a certain degree (they get far more homework than I ever did at that age!), I still want her to stay grounded, have fun and enjoying the last few years of “innocence.”
i do believe that girls are growing up way too fast. my almost 7 year old still likes princesses and the friends she hangs out with do, as well. i had an old classmate of hers at her b-day party last year roll her eyes at me saying that the birthday party was “boooring”. i guess because it was geared to “real” 6 year olds, not the hyper sexualized tween that her parents seem to think she is. (good thing she wasn’t my kid is all i have to say about that little incident!)
look back on your own life (since it’s hard to look at your daughter as a grown up) and just count the years you were actually a kid. it’s not very many. i am actively trying to encourage her being a little girl for as long as possible. maybe i’m just trying to delay the inevitable growing up but i just don’t see the purpose of a 6 or 7 year old watching a show about the internet! that’s something for teens IMO.
maybe i’m just old fashioned, i guess.