The time has come, that time when your child no longer accepts and adores your clothing selections for her. Yes, I firmly believe it happens to all of us. We all have been at that stage where the clothing choices our parents made for us would make us cringe and argue the fact that we are now too old to have our Mommy or Daddy buy us clothing. I remember being that age and I was a nightmare, I am sure, now I get to relive that stage with my oldest, which is nearing middle school age and is ready to show her true personality through clothing choices.
There are some limits you can place, as the parent, on your tweens or teens clothing choices and here are some that I have placed with my own daughter:
- Halter tops are unacceptable as they show off too much skin for every day wear outside of the beach or pool.
- Be appropriate in your choice of graphic tees that spread a message, make sure the messages on graphic tees are age appropriate and school acceptable.
- Choose a variety of clothing so that you can dress appropriately for the weather.
My daughter’s current obsession is with printed leggings, she just adores leggings with a matching graphic tee shirt on top. I have recently noticed that rue21.com has a wide range of tween and teen clothing options for any picky dresser. There is a LOVE graphic tee that I know my daughter would totally wear, unless I bought it that is. Parenting gets more difficult as you head into the age of teens picking their own clothing, you must ensure that they are allotted their independence to choose high waisted jeans if they so desire but limit their clothing to age appropriate messages and ensure they cover their body fully. My rule is, the less skin showing, the better.
Shopping for tweens or teens really can give one a headache, it’s no easy task, but if you set rules and boundaries from the beginning; yes that means dressing them appropriately when you are the one choosing clothing from day one, then you will find their clothing choices will continue to be appropriate well into their teen years. Support your tween and teen in their individuality and remember; life is far too short to spend it arguing about matching clothes; let your child’s clothing be their artwork.
My daughter was gifted shorts that I hid the very first time she tried them on. I thought she wouldn’t notice, but of course she did, and all she said was, “I knew you weren’t going to let me wear those.”Why do they make them so short anyway??? Geez.
But that’s a little off-topic, I know. 🙂 I’m headed over to Rue to take a look.