Friday, April 15, 2011

On my soapbox

Not a lot of things bother me. Really, they don’t! I can honestly brush off just about anything and not let it get to me. Sure, I have my moments and my days, but 99% of the time I am smiling and loving life.

But there is the rare occasion that I just can’t pass up the opportunity to complain about something.

And today is the day.

When did it become ok for parents to let their little girls forgo the “little girl” phase in life and jump right into the “early twenty” phase of life?

I was recently reading "The Look" section in my London/UK edition of InStyle and I came across an article about Willow Smith. For those of you that don’t know her, she is the 9 year old daughter of Will and Jada Smith. She apparently now has a rock and roll career. I’m not a fan, but good for her, if it’s her passion, then go for it. Quite frankly, I’m not in agreement that a 9 year old should have a rock and roll career, but whatever…that’s not my soapbox discussion for today.

Today, I want to focus on her look.

Why must she (and her parents) feel the need to be a trend setter and dress her like this? Seriously, who wears this crap?





Or this?





Or even this?



Why do they feel the need to be so fashion forward? mean, if she is really talented she should be able to be successful without the crazy clothes, right? She is 9, for god’s sake! Whatever happened to little 9 year old girls, acting their age, playing with appropriate toys, dressing their age, and just having fun?

Whatever happened to little girls wearing something like this?



Or this?



And how cute is this?



I just don’t get it.

Why? Why? Why must we push our kids to be older than they are?

Just yesterday I had a discussion with my kids about enjoying the life they have right now and to stop wishing to be older or something that they are not.

Suddenly, I’m glad we live in the Midwest and have Midwestern values!

5 comments:

  1. I hear you loud and clear! It's insanity to me and it really makes me want to shelter my children. What happened to little boys playing with frogs and bugs and yes, even toy guns playing cowboys and Indians? What happened to little girls playing dress up as princesses and playing dolls and helping mommy make cookies? Why must our CHILDREN get out and have careers before they can spell the word CAREER and why must people put such ridiculous clothing on just to get attention!!!!!

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  2. Oh wow, those pictures are just downright scary. I remember when my mom freaked out bc I snuck a pair of high heels into the house - I couldn't imagine her reaction to some of the stuff parents actually let their kids wear now. All these "trendy" clothes for little girls are just breeding early consumerism and hurtful competition with each other, long before they're ready to handle either one. I'm not a mom yet, but I completely agree that kids need to be out playing and having fun - climbing trees and getting their clothes dirty - and not worrying about careers and wardrobes.
    And of course, you know how we all look back on those pics of ourselves as kids, and think "I can't believe I wore that!" At least ours aren't out there in the public eye... poor Willow's will be following her for life. :(

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  3. I hear you! There are even some styles out there for "non- rock star" kiddos that I think are awful and inappropriate for my girs to wear! Let them me little!!! - - fellow MidWest Mom :-)

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  4. If you could move over for a minute, I'm going to join you on your soap box!

    Do you know how hard it is to find girl clothes like the last three photos in the store??? You can catalog order, but it seems like when little girls make the jump from 5T to 6, and move from the Toddler to the Girls section in the store, they tart up all the clothes. It's so hard to find nice, demure LITTLE GIRL clothes for my LITTLE GIRL. Size 7 is STILL LITTLE! I just want to run into Target on a whim and get CUTE clothes... it's darn near impossible!

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  5. I couldn't agree more. I think it's really sad that Willow's parents aren't practicing better judgment in terms of her styling and fashion chioces. At 9 I was rolling in the mud in cut-off shorts and tshirts (I was a bit of a tomboy, LOL!!) but I LOVED that phase.

    This is very sad, I thinhk.

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