Listen / Read
The children are going up too fast! And not fast enough! Paul says they should grow up! Jesus says they shouldn’t grow up at all! But won’t anyone think of the children? The sexy, promiscuous, apron string swinging children.
I should probably take this opportunity to confess that I’ve taken to ignoring the audio and reading the text of Thought for the Day instalments in a comically sinister voice. It just makes them more interesting and entertaining than they otherwise are. Try it, it’s… well, it’s probably a sign of my puerile immaturity, but it is kind of fun.
Though it does sound like Pepinster’s thoughts on precocious children and infantile adults may seem somewhat paradoxical, it’s quite simple really. Children are selfish and self-pitying, which is bad. So adults shouldn’t be selfish and self-pitying. But children are also generous, trusting, affectionate and inquisitive, which adults should be as well. So basically, don’t be selfish and self-pitying. She couldn’t just say that though because she had to remind us of all the children who are taking part in depraved sex acts. Not with priests. Just with each other for fun. The little perverts. It’s good to hear her denounce all those teenagers having consensual sex for fun. Needed saying.
But she’s got a point when she suggests that there’s a simultaneous trends both towards excessive mollycoddling on the part of parents and an unnecessary rush to behave like adults on the part of children. Perhaps it has gone too far:
