Over dinner one night, your six-year-old daughter asks, “Mom, what’s a pimp?” You nearly choke on a meatball. “Where did you hear that word?” you ask. “Jamie said it in a song he was singing at school today, and I want to know what it is.”

It’s not unlikely that your six- to eight-year-old has at least one classmate who is allowed to listen to music, watch movies or play video games that are way too old for him. Or perhaps there’s a child whose conversation or knowledge about sex or some other sensitive subject seems way beyond his years.

This is a common concern for parents, says Sara Dimerman, a Thornhill, Ont., child and family therapist and the author of Character Is the Key: How to Unlock the Best in Our Children and Ourselves. “It really does seem like children are growing up faster these days,” she says. “I see a lot more ‘adultified’ or precocious kids both in my practice and in my private life. On the one hand, I am amazed that they know so much, but on the other hand, it’s sad because sometimes kids are getting too much information before they’re really ready to handle or process it.”

While you try hard to create an age-appropriate environment for your kids, you can’t be with them 24/7. How should you handle the influence of a precocious friend in your child’s life?

Originally published in Today's Parent, January 2010