Childhood and Innocence- Still existent?

Barbie dolls, frilly dresses, a dumb eyed look, pigtails and funny hairdos, the gender biased stereotypes, the “that’s too boyish for me” or “that’s too boyish for YOU”, were all attributes of my childhood, either my own opinion( that is if I had any of my own) or things that my mum forced into my head. I was constantly dressed in pink, whether I really liked it or not, only because it made me look “oh so cute”. I resented every bit of it (or mostly, I admit I actually liked barbies once, loved them really), I felt my years of childhood went totally according to the way my parents decided. Barely anytime for tantrums, I ate what was forced down my throat. Yes often I did fight it off, but I didn’t have an option later, that stuff ended going down my throat. We would be told that a bogie man would come eat us up if we refused to swallow that last morsel of whatever. We believed that lie. No questions asked, no answers replied. Yes, kids around my time were pretty dumb.
And NOW, I stand before my seven year old niece, dumbfounded, staring at her unblinkingly, after she made a comment on marriage and told my aunt to shut up, something I only became accustomed to doing about, maybe lets say, three years back? “Marriages today are more chilled out, so don’t you force me to do anything, and please don’t talk about it, I have YEARS to go for that issue.” She said to my aunt, rolling her eyes, head cocked at an angle. My jaw fell open. My aunt laughed and simply hugged that girl.
I’m talking about a SEVEN year old girl. This set me wondering, did I even think like that, or even DARE to think that way, let alone blurt it out. I remember vaguely, while watching a T.V. program, I asked my mother whether the woman was fat because she was pregnant. For an answer I got a slap across my face, and a warning to behave my age. Then on, I never questioned, even when I got my first sex education lesson in school in the fifth. I feared that slap till my mother to felt I was grown up enough. And Kids today, know exactly what sex is, they do know that when somebody has sex, they’re prone to get pregnant. At my age I didn’t even dare to think and relate those things. Or was too busy playing with my kitchen things, dolls and friends. If such thought or word ever issued from my lips, I would be issued a tight slap across my face. And today, the parents simply hug their children and say “ awww! isn’t my child so brilliant! “ Right!
Darn! Still I do wish I was born into this generation!
Well, yes I’m talking about how much children’s thought’s have “evolved” according to the passing time if I can out it that way.
We were innocent or rather dumb, and we were children. Can you really define these beings as children anymore? Where an average child today knows the basics of sex, at least what are the results etc, know to some extent about the “bases” of a pre-marital relationship,
Today, I see my youngest cousins, nieces and nephews, all of around the ages of 4- 10 years talking BIG. I mean big. BIG overgrown thoughts, PHILOSOPHY for god’s sake, opinions of subjects we barely even set our own thoughts on, everything. They even rebel at that age, refuse to wear those frilly dresses, because it makes them look far to girly, play football with boys, since they find that cool, and sift through pages of Harry potter. I used to struggle to read even Red Riding hood without my mum’s help, (but yes I was only 4 then, so don’t look at me like that). Children’s tastes, thoughts have evolved so much its hard to really call them children or innocent at all. These words suit those pink crawling babies, toothless, unaware and mumbling. Once that kid learns to speak, I know, they’ve jumped the whole growth process, and the innocence from them is slowing fading. It’s a warning, next time you face a seven year old, be armed with a shield, the kid will verbally blow your mind and make you appear dumb.
Just this way, I stand before this kid, speechless, fumbling for the right words, and actually taking care that I won’t say something stupid. Innocent? I think I look more innocent before these kids. These kids are really not kids anymore, they’re evolved beings who’ve pretty much stepped into adolescence at the age at which I was still gagging on food, and my words would still lisp. Childhood… is an age that will probably no longer exist. Innocence? It DOESN’T exist!!