“The day the child realizes that all adults are imperfect, he becomes an adolescent; the day he forgives them, he becomes an adult; the day he forgives himself, he becomes wise”
Square-wheel-jockey
Lebensfreude
“The day the child realizes that all adults are imperfect, he becomes an adolescent; the day he forgives them, he becomes an adult; the day he forgives himself, he becomes wise”
Square-wheel-jockey 
12 year olds… YUCK!!!
It’s a tough age. Not yet a teenager and deep down still wanting to be a child, as you said realising the parents are far from perfect, body changes, voice for boys… growing up so quickly is also exhausting and makes them clumsy for a while because they have no time to adapt to their new size… Also because of that new size, adults expect them to behave like teenagers or even adults but they’re still children really…
Their whole perception of the world around them, their own environment get shattered… Adjustment is long and hard, painful and scary… they need loads of love and patient guidance to come out perfectly healthy and well balanced, happy and appreciative of every one ‘ effort to help them through…
I’d hate to be 12 again… unless I can go through it with my almost 40 years experience… ha ha
You are right in saying that “it’s a tough age”…for teens and for parents alike. The potential young people possess is phenomenal. They constantly surprise me with their talents, patience, knowledge and inherently native smarts. Where was all of that when we were their age? Maybe it was how our parents’s spoke to us: “speak when you are spoken to”, “you are too young for that”, “what do you know about that?”
Thanks for you comments.
Yes, it is true that young ones are given a voice today. But unfortunately I fear that we all had children too late and are not doing our parenting job properly, because we are too old to be parents, too slack, too selfish. We also have been the in-between generation, ( between our parents who suffered from not being trusted with their opinions and the new generation we see today who actually have way too much freedom of speech and being) we have been spoiled, we have been given respect but not were not spoilt by technology yet, we still had respect for our elders. The world is changing too fast and not in a pretty way.
Generally speaking, I also find young ones socially and emotionally handicapped! Children these days think the world owes them everything and more, they have little respect for anyone else and even themselves, their values are in the wrong spot, or they have none… I fear these poor children from today have grown up too fast and not been given the time to be children. You are right, they are smarter, way smarter than we ever were. But you know what I wouldn’t give up my childhood for any glimpse of their neurons. It will be interesting to see this new generation deal with real life when they are real adults and have to earn a living.
I am sad for these children whose childhood has been stolen from them. Most of them will live up to 100 if they can eat healthy food. They have soo much time to be adults, we should allow them to remain children for as long as possible. So yes, we weren’t asked to think out loud but at least our childhood was protected.
Then you meet that amazing child, who’s got the knowledge of a young adult, seems to still have respect for his world and acts in a thankful manner for his environment has been appropriately chosen. Then you think the world can still swirl around and children can be children again, with a voice but with the right to play like children should. Hopefully the next generation will find a way to bring back the due respect and the freedom of speech for the next generations.
But they’ll have to draw their own values because it seems that was lost with us, hopeless parents…