Growing up ... very quickly

Parents love dressing the little ones in  adult clothing -- it makes sense, of course, when they're going to church or some fairy formal event.  Here's Cole on his third birthday, "a little man"  completely with hat and tie and vest.  Yesterday we had a small family dinner yesterday for him and his Dad who also had a birthday this week.

I get a little nervous about children being pushed to be little adults although, I admit, I appreciate when they are taught manners, which Cole's mother attempts with all three. (He's the middle child -- his big brother is definitely learning to be pleasant at the dinner table; his little sister is an untamed cutie and no one minds at a year and a half. In fact, we all smile).  It was  pleasing to see that after Cole happily opened the package I brought with a Pooh Bear, he did not relinquish Pooh while gladly accepting a couple of action figures from the Spiderman series.

 Children are being given these  action toys at a very young age. I think sociologists probably have weighed in on what is becoming of childhood but I haven't read it, just speaking from a gut feeling because I happen to dislike all those toys that are based on cartoon series and have a narrative about "getting" the bad guy...or, it seems, most any guy.  I suppose it's the role of a grand -- well great-grandmother to bemoan a loss of innocence.  And it bothers me all the more that the action dolls are given by a grandparent who has had a lifelong fascination with toy soldiers, and such "typical" masculine matters.  He is a peaceful man ... so what am I to think about this continuation of the macho interests?