Today’s generation is mad over following glamour ideas from celebrities. They want to buy everything if it’s hot and cool like they’ll drool over shoe pair if it is currently worn by any VJs and also they would like to buy the same dress if worn by Madhuri Dixit in ‘hum aapke hain kaun’.
 
Today’s scenario forces us to be extra careful with our children, make sure that they are not deprived and strike a good balance. They will have to be very careful while dealing with our teens’ unreasonable demands, because if their demands will not get fullfilled, they can take their own life. 15 years ago, 12 or 13 year olds didn’t have the courage to kill themselves. However, today one hears of even nine and ten year olds killing themselves over flimsy desires like  owning a mobile that was have by some hero on a popular music channel or a swanky car featured in some magazine.

Carried away by movies, television, ads and the friends, the race to glamorize starts very early in a child’s life. Even a small child’s birthday is more about the parent’s status statement rather than the child’s enjoyment of a special day. So, it’s more about themes and costumes, professional entertainers, and expensive return gifts rather than an evening of fun and games for a child among those with whom he will enjoy. As a kid hits their teens, the teen’s lifestyle gets amplified for both parents and kids. Only now teen’s lifestyle has gained a momentum of its own and they now have their own circle and have their new ways of enjoyment which are a way ahead of their parents’ affordability range.

Due to peer pressure and curiosity, teenagers get carried away by this new wind. Nowadays, teens wouldn’t be seen doing anything that his group of friends wouldn’t consider fashionable. Peer acceptance is crucial to them, if glamour is the name of the game, so be it. Infact, mobile phones, discos, low rise jeans, bustries and spaghetti tops that show the naval, pierced eyebrows, tongues, belly buttons, cars and motorbike and cars to colleges, which are considered sinful, decadent and taboo earlier, is common place now.

Parents have also transformed themselves from the traditional stereotype to a more modern, liberal and open a lot. Infact, quite a few parents obsess as much over their children’s belonging, as the children themselves. Though I know MP3 is banned in the schools, but I let my son carry his favorite MP3 to school, because everyone in his friends circle do so and I don’t want him to be excluded. I also allow my daughter to join her friends to disco once a month or to a movie because I find this openness a welcome change from our own secretiveness. I admire the honest spirit of these youngsters but if they know their limits , it’s really good fun.

It’s not just youngsters who have turned glamorous; people across all age groups are going through a lifestyle makeover. It is just that while adults have a lot more inhibitions to shed, teenagers are always more adventurous. If there is more glamour to go around today, it’s because it’s easily available, acceptable and a great deal of fun. So let them go on like that, but just watch them that they don’t cross their limits.