Everyone Wants to Dress Like a Teenager
Posted on 22 August 2008 by Lisa Pawlowski
I don’t care who you are, what you’re built like, or how old you are, tiger stripes and glitter just don’t look good on a woman. And if that print is on a midriff baring top, and the person is wearing low-rise jeans and has a muffin top working, it’s even more heinous.
The ensemble I described was what I saw a mom wearing when I registered my kids for school the other day. Her fifth grade daughter, a ten or eleven year-old, stood next to her wearing a surprisingly modest outfit, but with platform high heels.
In 2006, Celia Rivenbark eloquently wrote what millions of moms were thinking in her book, “Stop Dressing Your 6-year old Like a Skank and Other Words of Southern Wisdom.” She opined how it was nearly impossible to buy little girl clothes that didn’t look like something a prostitute would wear. Rivenbark theorized that the girls who wore trashy clothing fell into two categories. One, they were the daughters of wimpy, uninvolved parents, too busy talking on their cell phones, who mindlessly pass their bank cards over to the girls and don’t care what they buy. Or that the mothers think trashy-style is cute and try to dress the same way as their daughters.
She hilariously pointed out that on these Nanny-type shows we always see some woman, wearing a tube top and cut-off denim short shorts, cowering in a corner, sobbing, and wailing, “I cain’t get my kids to mind me. I’ve lost control of my children.” It’s funny ‘cause it’s true.
The problem is, parents want to dress like teen-agers and the kids want to, also. When I pick-up my kids from school, I look at some of their classmates and wonder, “What are their parents thinking?” And too often, the parents aren’t. They are too busy with their own lives and, quite honestly, I don’t think they want to parent. I think some people actually want their kids grow up quickly so they don’t have to deal with them anymore.
Kids have always wanted to dress older than they are. But in the past, it seems like more parents had boundaries and weren’t so afraid to say no. Society is urging kids to grow-up way too quickly, and yet is prolonging adolescence far beyond the teen years.
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August 23rd, 2008 at 8:05 pm
Rock on Lisa, rock on
August 23rd, 2008 at 10:12 pm
Thanks for all your support, Michael!