Enjoyed a cup of coffee at Starbucks yesterday when I connected two points in my mind. The conclusion rather disturbed me in the middle of my enjoyment.

First. A group of five or six high-school aged students came in and ordered whatever they ordered. They were boys and girls. The thing that caught my attention was that each of them was dressed out of a fashion magazine, clothed, styled, and manicured in a way that shouted glam, glam, glam.

They looked like runway models and yet you could tell in their mannerism and overall bearing that they were totally kids, no where near adulthood despite a physical image that screamed otherwise.

Second, after soaking that in, I recalled an article I had seen perhaps two or three days earlier. On a website of some substance and seriousness there was a piece about adolescence extending not to 18-years old but to 25-years old. A quarter-century of self-absorption, narcissism, and relative immaturity. Great.

Now, put these two points together. On one hand, children of ever-younger ages are dressing and physically presenting themselves as adults. On the other hand, young people are increasingly expected and expecting to behave like children well past childhood.

I don’t want to sound like the old geezer that we all remember, hacking and wheezing while pontificating about the good old days, the times before we all grew up. Still, I don’t think the combination that I’ve described above is positive. I want our two daughters to be the children they are and then, when it’s time, to be adults, the adults they can be.