Prostitots and Other Thoughts about Kids Clothes

My guest on Parents Rule! (www.radiosandysprings.com Thurs. 2-3 pm EST) this week is Celia Rivenbark (www.celiarivenbark.com) who has written a book entitled Stop Dressing Your Six Year Old Like a Skank. This has made me do some thinking about this particular phenomenon.

Do you suppose that these parents are all blind? Do they not notice that their precious 8-year old girl is leaving the house wearing a top with suggestive wording on it? According to Celia, there is a term for babies who dress this way--prostitots. Is that how you want your child to think of herself?

Do they not see their teen going out among the opposite sex with clothing on that leaves nothing to the imagination. I truly believe, but have not tested the theory, that these girls can have sex without actually removing any piece of this clothing. Are these same parents going to be surprised when their children are pregnant, have herpes, or just simply found out to be having sex? When they want to know what happened, they will need to take a trip to Lookinthemirrorville.

Frankly I am tired of looking at fat girls in too-tight jeans with lots of jiggly fat hanging out from the under the short midriff shirt. Does anyone really think this looks good? Do they look in the mirror and say, "Oh boy, I gained more weight since yesterday and that belly fat is jiggling better than ever!" My mom would have taken one look at me if I had dressed like that and given me lectures on the following subjects:

• Proper attire for a young lady
• Nutrition and benefits of the lack of sweets in my diet
• What teenage boys are interested in
• Why I would never find a decent husband
• What the neighbors would think
• How I had disappointed my father, or the subtitle, How will we ever show our faces in town again if you go out of this house dressed like that

It would be way too late to meet my friends by the time she would have finished--which, actually, would have been her goal.

Are we so afraid of disciplining our kids that we cannot say no to them? Are they just too busy to care how the kids look? Or are they just to apathetic to argue? In any case, parents need to wake up and be the parents they are intended to be.

We are not supposed to our kids friends. They have plenty of friends! Your children need you to set some limits and uphold consequences for violating those limits. In time, as your child becomes an adult, you will become more friend than parent and that is a wonderful stage. I love that my kids are my best friends. But while they are young, you can be loving and friendly. However you must be the parent.