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Should I Let My Kid Dress Like a Weirdo?
National Catholic Register ^ | 09/01/2015 | SIMCHA FISHER

Posted on 09/01/2015 2:40:18 PM PDT by nickcarraway

Last night, I told my kids, "Make sure you have an outfit picked out for the first day of school, so it will be easy to get ready on time!" This morning, I discovered that they heard me say, "Make sure you have an outfit picked out mentally, so we can spend the first morning frantically tearing through mountains of laundry in the hopes that your My Little Pony tank somehow miraculously found its way into a basket."

This is just the little kids, who more or less want to look like all their friends. I do have teenagers, too, and they are all deep into inventing their own styles. Yesterday on Connecting the Dots, a caller asked me and Mark Shea how to navigate kids' style choices, especially when they want to look weird. Naturally, kids have to follow the school's dress code, and they can't be immodest. (I tell them: You are a person, not an object. Dress so that it's easy for people to tell you're a person, not an object.) Beyond that, here are the general principles we follow:

1. Avoid anything permanent. When one of the kids thinks that a tattoo or a piercing might be kind of awesome, I ask them, "Hey, remember when you were really, really into Animorphs?" And they wince and grimace. "Okay," I say. "But at the time, you thought they were great, right? But now you think they're stupid. There's a lot of things like that: they seemed really awesome just a short time ago, but then your idea of awesome changed. This is going to keep happening for a while as you’re growing up, so we're not going to do anything that it would be hard to undo."

It doesn't hurt that my husband spends a lot of

(Excerpt) Read more at ncregister.com ...


TOPICS: Education; Local News; Society
KEYWORDS: parenting
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1 posted on 09/01/2015 2:40:18 PM PDT by nickcarraway
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To: nickcarraway

I made it quite clear to my kids, that nobody with a tattoo or body piercing is going to live under my roof.


2 posted on 09/01/2015 2:41:17 PM PDT by dfwgator
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To: nickcarraway

Maybe it’s the clothes she wears, or the way she combs her hair.


3 posted on 09/01/2015 2:43:33 PM PDT by MUDDOG
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To: dfwgator

I was thinking of the little girl who wore her princess costume for 14 months every day.


4 posted on 09/01/2015 2:48:41 PM PDT by nickcarraway
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To: nickcarraway
When I was a teen, I looked a bit like Robert Smith (The Cure). My mom's boyfriend pulled me by the hair, stuff a sock in my mouth and give me a buzzcut. Can't say I appreciated it much. Now I wouldn't dress like that now but I think, for the most part, teens ought to be influenced and not imposed upon. Pic for reference:
5 posted on 09/01/2015 3:07:09 PM PDT by z taxman
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To: dfwgator

BUMP

good for you!

do not let them emulate freaks like Mylie Cyrus


6 posted on 09/01/2015 3:10:37 PM PDT by GeronL (Cruz is for real, 100%)
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To: z taxman
But at least he destroyed Mecha-Streisand.


7 posted on 09/01/2015 3:12:14 PM PDT by dfwgator
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To: dfwgator

Hah, with the help of Sydney Poitier and Leonard Malton.


8 posted on 09/01/2015 3:15:06 PM PDT by z taxman
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To: dfwgator

I guess Laz and his Prince Albert won’t be joining you for brunch anytime soon.


9 posted on 09/01/2015 3:15:57 PM PDT by fieldmarshaldj (Resist We Much)
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To: nickcarraway

Dressing like a weirdo (barring anything illegal or permanent, as the author says) is a low-cost learning experience.


10 posted on 09/01/2015 3:19:53 PM PDT by Tax-chick ("All the time live the truth with love in your heart." ~Fr. Ho Lung)
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To: z taxman

If someone pulled a stunt like that on me they would learn the meaning of regret. And sooner, not later.


11 posted on 09/01/2015 3:32:12 PM PDT by stormer
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To: dfwgator

Hurray for you! My 18 y.o. granddaughter has been dressing goth/punk/grunge since she turned 16. Whacko hair-do and makeup, gauged ear lobes, nose piercings, etc. Her mother (my daughter), a single mom, thinks all of this “self-expression” is “ok”. I TOTALLY disagree. My GD is a good kid, but this style attracts the wrong kind of attention and some not so good kids with the same look. Can’t take either one of them anywhere.


12 posted on 09/01/2015 3:35:24 PM PDT by fivecatsandadog (Obama is an enemy of the US.)
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To: stormer

I was like 13 and my mom wanted my hair cut. Crap like that didn’t happen when I got older though.


13 posted on 09/01/2015 3:37:34 PM PDT by z taxman
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To: nickcarraway

Some good advice in there.


14 posted on 09/01/2015 3:38:33 PM PDT by vpintheak (Man up and bring it politicians!)
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To: nickcarraway

I told my son I’d slap him into the next millennium if he came home with piercings and tattoos.

He was pissed!(because he already knew better)


15 posted on 09/01/2015 3:42:12 PM PDT by Califreak (Hope and Che'nge is killing U.S. Feel the Trump-mentum!(insert ireally.supportCruzdisclaimerhere/))
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To: nickcarraway
“Remember who you belong to.” That is what I always told my kids. (meaning God)
They don't dress like weirdo's.
16 posted on 09/01/2015 3:45:43 PM PDT by right way right (May we remain sober over mere men, for God really is our one and only true hope.)
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To: nickcarraway
Dont walk away from me when I'm talkin' to you!
17 posted on 09/01/2015 3:50:51 PM PDT by Delta 21 (Patiently waiting for the jack booted kick at my door.)
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To: z taxman

Your Mom’s boyfriend should have woken up dead one morning....


18 posted on 09/01/2015 3:54:06 PM PDT by clee1 (We use 43 muscles to frown, 17 to smile, and 2 to pull a trigger. I'm lazy and I'm tired of smiling.)
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To: z taxman

I guess I was about 9-10 (1974) when I asked mom if I could let my hair grow.
She said, “As long as you keep it clean, I hate greasy hair”.
Well I was off to the races. From that point on they never really said much about my appearance other than my Dad’s obligatory “Boy, get a haircut”.
My look in High School was much more Judd Nelson in the “Breakfast Club” several years before the movie came out.
Since I paid for my own garb from 15, I spent a lot of money in Thrift stores.
Mom was always cool about it, and would occasionally shake her head jokingly, and laugh a little.
She knew she had raised a “unique” kid.


19 posted on 09/01/2015 3:55:09 PM PDT by rikkir (You can lead a horde to knowledge but you can't make them think. (TnkU ctdonath2))
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To: clee1

I could tell you stories...


20 posted on 09/01/2015 3:56:56 PM PDT by z taxman
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