The story of Sasha Bennington is a classic example of how we are thrusting our children into adulthood too fast. Born to a mother who was a model, Sasha wore her first false eyelashes at a tender age of eight, and at 11 years of age her beauty treatment costs a monthly 300 British pounds!! And Sasha’s mother, Jayne, 31, finds it extremely acceptable and encourages her daughter to put on make-up and look more adult that her age. Sasha in fact does it all, from fake nails, to fake tans, hair extensions and pedicure, her beauty regime goes all the way. And mom Jayne is there to guide her every step.

What makes Jayne push her daughter into all this very adult world of the business of looking good? Jayne, in her twenties, was a model ad feels that she has started her career pretty late, in terms of the standards set by very young models, and she does not want her daughter not to have that advantage of starting early. She feels by getting her daughter Sasha to begin early, she is setting up the stage for Sasha to conquer the modeling world at the earliest.

As a parent I often can’t help wondering if by letting my child be herself, and not pushing her into becoming an adult so fast, am I going the right way or not.Although Sasha and her mom Jayne stay in UK, and we are in India, we too are often doing the same thing to our children. The countless reality shows showcasing children in hideous makeup and garish costumes, gyrating to mindless Hindi music, shows only parental wish-fulfillment and most probably nothing else. Some of the children are even younger than the age where they can comprehend the full extent of what they are doing. As Jayne, herself has said, that she is certainly not the only mother to prod her child into adulthood, the reality shows in our television channels quote the same sentiments. The world has changed since the time we were children, but sometimes girls like Sasha makes us wonder if parental expectations have changed at all or not over the generations. Are we not living with the same parental expectations that had dotted our very own childhoods? Can our children take this? One always is left wondering.