Pondering Childhood

I've been thinking  about childhood lately. It seams like the world wants kids to become adults almost as soon as they start loosing their teeth.
The one place that's selling bikini tops at first aimed at little girls as young as five, they have now since changed the wording. They are padded to give an illusion of having a chest. I ask why do they want to push the more grown up image on to them at such a young age?
Childhood is suppose to be playing games, making friends, using your imagination and learning about some things slowly ,very slowly. Childhood is suppose to be the innocent time of their lives.
But to me it looks like they want children, especially little girls it seams like, to be as grown up as fast as possible. Make them look as sexy as possible as soon as possible. I just don't get it.
I have two girls myself, who are now in their twenties, and one thing I didn't want them to deal with is worrying about how their bodies looked. I just told them that everyone changes at different paces. I did not want them to worry or focus on looking older then they were. To try to glam it up before they were ready. They have their whole rest of their life to be mature.
Childhood is about the first 12 and if your lucky, 18 years of their life. After that it's 80 some years of all the adult issues there is. And believe me that could be a very long time to be responsible.

It's really hard though to be a kid now a days. You can't even go outside to explore the world any more. When I was growing up we spent most of our time out side doing things. You know riding bike, swimming, ice skating, sledding and climbing trees. I loved to climb trees. Anytime my mom wanted to find me sometimes all she had to do was look in a tree and there I was. I may be a girl but I loved the feeling of climbing trees. I guess when your short you have to find anyway possible to look down on people whenever you can.
Now a days kids are lucky if they can go outside and do anything. If is not because there might be a boogieman outside that will get you( I would say he would have to get me out of the tree first or be prepared to handle a wild cat, I can fight dirty in unpredictable ways) or the neighborhood does not want to hear kids playing outside or there is just no place to play or the parents don't want to watch them outside so they plop them down in front of the TV babysitter. 
When you watch TV and you see commercials for kids toys they always show kids playing inside. Not very often is something advertised for outside. I guess that's because there are to many boogie men outside, real or imagined.
I think we should find a way to give children a chance to have a childhood before there is no such thing. Play will become a thing of the past.
Remember your childhood, how was it for you?
Maybe it's time to find different role models for us all.