In light of the uproar over Miley Cyrus' "scandalous" photograph ,[https://forums.joeuser.com/310120/page/1/#1719278], so vastly overrated!   I’m all for protecting our children and I am not certainly in favor of them being forced to grow up before their time.  In other words, doing or getting involved in anything that is not for them because they are too young and don’t need to be involved with anything that would be bad for them!

Braeden, aka Sancho Nino made a comment on the blog that I wrote regarding the scandal, it was an interesting and enlightening response which made me go ‘hmmm..”  and gave me more food for thought.

Sancho  Responded:

“Maybe this is my newly-installed European sensibilities talking, but I don't get what all the fuss is about.

Went to the beach today. Saw hundreds of naked tits. Some of them on girls Miley's age.

And guess what? BFD. It's her back; it's not a seductive pose at all; and come on, people.

If folks be getting horny off stuff like this they need help anyway.”

Notice my emphasis on the first thing he said.  “Newly-installed European sensibilities”!  It got me asking myself, “Do we Americans get too hot and bothered too easily?”  “Do we tend to over-think and over-dramatized and tend to get too hot and bothered too quickly over everything, or at least most things?”   “Are we too prudish in our outlook, or maybe we are just too sensitive to our sexuality”!  The word itself seems to get us (speaking generally) all uptight! 

Braeden said that he was at the beach and saw hundreds (I know he was probably exaggerating, but it made his point!) of naked tits.   It is such a natural thing Europeans take so naturally, almost as if it’s as natural as breathing!

They don’t hide (I’m talking out of my mouth here – tongue in cheek – i.e. I don’t have facts, but merely from what I’ve read and some of the people I know) their bodies as much as we seem to do.  They are not scared of talking openly about sex and nudity the way we seem to be.  They are a pretty open (liberal, inhibited) bunch of people!

We tend to be too serious all the time when maybe we should laugh at something or not take it in the manner it seems to present itself, i.e., at face value! 

In our lives, so many of us are under strict rules and policies all the time.  So much so that we take these types of rules into our personal lives (unconsciously) and that is how we become so stressed! 

I know there are a few of us who do take it easy and not let things bother us.  But there is the other 80% who most times because of religion, turn into faceless people who adhere to only one thing, one way of living, one way of doing everything!  So we end up looking at life through these dark glasses and we don’t see beyond the lines that have been crossed for us.

Don't get me wrong, when it comes to our children, we are very protective of them, as we should be, however, there are times when we put our own insecurities on them and which becomes their burden. 

I know it’s not easy being a parent, more than anything else, I don’t even like to think that I’m a failure as a mom, because there are times I do feel like one.  Especially given the situation with my older daughter, leaving home early, that was a hard pill to swallow.  But as I told my husband recently, she might not have gone on the path we wanted her to go, but she is making her own way, and she is doing alright, she is just doing it on her own terms.  I think that is all our children want from us. As we as adults would want from our own bosses, or friends, or our spouses.  For someone to believe in us, trust us, and let us be to take our own path in life.

There will be times when it’s necessary to over re-act, when it is appropriate, like when children are being abused, but there are just some times, as in the case of a simple photograph, when over reaction is too much.