FollowI went shopping with my girls last night. Both my girls have hit growth spurts recently, and my wife Lori went through the girl’s closets earlier this week, getting rid of old clothes that are too small. Wednesday she warned me, “The girls need some clothes.”
So last night, I went with them to some outlets near our house.
Have you shopped for tween and teen girl clothes lately?
Alyssa is 14 and likes short shorts. So last night was full of a lot of, “Are you kidding me?!!!” from me when Alyssa would hold up a pair of shorts that contained less cotton than you’d find in the top of a bottle of Tylenol. We had some good conversations and I tried to “pick my battles.” When the night was done she was really happy with what she walked away with.
Ashley is 12 and she’s only 76 pounds, which makes it really hard to find clothes for her. She doesn’t starve herself… she’s just teeny like her mother. Shopping for her is difficult. She wants to wear teenage clothing, but only fits in “kids” clothes. We were excited when we found some retro Star Wars and IronMan t-shirts at Gap Kids (yes… shirts for little boys. But my Ash looked pretty dang cool rockin her Ironman shirt this morning!)
I don’t know how many parents go out shopping with their kids, but it’s a good experience to learn where trends are at and to dialogue about modesty, etc. Plus it was just a fun night together laughing and joking around.
Some stores are recognizing concerns from parents and are seeking to provide “mom-approved” clothes, stores like J.C. Penny. This article talks a little about that- here’s a snippet:
In 2009, JCPenney talked to tweens and moms about their shopping habits and style tastes. While tweens initiate shopping trips and select apparel items themselves, moms continue to join them on shopping trips and have a final say in the purchase. JCPenney confirmed through its research that tweens desired the latest fashion trends — with color, embellishments and comfort highlighted as important factors — while moms noted that apparel should not feature edgy slogans and should offer layering components to make the items age-appropriate and adhere to school dress code requirements.
It’s hard for today’s girls to dress modest in a hoochified world.
Tonight Lori and I are hosting the jr. high girls at our house for a discussion on self Esteem, modesty and purity (I’ll be using a ton of research- and showing them this). We’ll be spending a little bit of time talking about what girls wear and how it affects guys. Should be a good time. If you have a moment, pray for this time.
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My wife has the same issue with my 7 year old daughter who happens to be really tall like me. She just had to buy her a skirt that was two sizes big bc the one in the right size was way too short. Thankfully, it had an elastic waist, so it will stay on. We were looking at shorts for the girls the other day and the modest selection was almost non-existent. we also have problems with shirts. The rule is, if you raise your arms up in the air and I can see your stomach, they are too short. Thankfully, second graders don’t seem to mind mom picking out their clothes. Things should get very interesting in a couple of years.