Turning 13

My son had his 13th birthday a few days ago.  He was so excited to be 13, I however was not so thrilled.  He's my youngest and I'd like to keep them as young as long as possible.  It's hard to watch your children grow up and depend on you less and less, although it's quite a nice sense of new freedom. 

In our American culture our children live with us as long as we allow.  Sometimes this means they move out of the house when they are finished with college and find that first job, where they can live independently. For others they move out right after high school. 

For the ancient Maya childhood was quite different.  By the time the children were 5 years old, they were already helping out with the responsibilities.  The boys helped farm and hunt and the girls help cook and clean.  It's hard to imagine a 5 year old doing such chores, but for the Maya it was a way of survival. 

When a Maya child turned 13 it was a pivotal year for them.  13 was considered a sacred number.  The Maya children did not experience teenage adolescence.   At 13 they were having "puberty ceremonies" and being prepped for marriage.  13 was the beginning stage of becoming an independent member of Maya society.  By the age of 15, when our kids are just learning how to drive, an ancient Maya child was considered an adult and expected to provide for themselves and their family if they had one at that age. 

13 and 15 seem quite young to us to being such things and having those kinds of expectations for such a young child, but when you consider the grand scheme of things, life expectancy was only 52 years old.  And if you lived to 52 that was considered living a very long time.