My little girl is growing up fast. Apparently, childrens’ clothing designers want to ensure that she grows up faster.
Maybe I was naive, having shopped in the infant and toddler section of departments stores for the last four years. I liked the modest ruffles, the monkeys and smiling ice cream faces adorning cap sleeved smocks. I was comfortable with knee length skirts and ankle length nightgowns, and I even tolerated a Disney Princess or two, even though I have a strong personal objection to licensed character adorned clothing. Disney and Nickelodeon can find somewhere else to advertise other than my child’s chest.
However, I was in for a huge shock when my oldest daughter made the leap from toddler to “big girl,” and it had me wishing Dora’s round little cheeks were front and center on a size 6X tee. Apparently, between the ages of four and five our little girls turn from sweet, modest children into hot pants wearing, boy crazy adolescents. I was sickened by the fact that I could not find a pair of shorts that adequately covered my own child’s round little cheeks and it was goodbye “Hello Kitty” and hello “Jo Bros.”
One of our current solutions is to buy the most basic, modest clothes we can and let our daughter express herself through hair accessories and jewelry. The fact remains though that the trashy fashions are being marketed directly to her, and despite my best efforts, someday she will want to look more like a Bratz doll and less like my little girl. Maybe that 4T Princess t-shirt really isn’t too small yet.
Comments
Sara
August 5th, 2009 - 2:25:21 PM
My sister just made her six-year-old daughter return a Bratz doll that she got for her birthday. She wondered how to explain that she just doesn't want her to have a doll that "looks like a ho." (She ended up telling her that families are different, and that's not the kind of doll they have in her family.) But my sister also couldn't understand why I didn't like to see little girls in bikinis. Is that just me?
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