What happened to parents of today...?
"I heard my wife ask our daughter if she would please change into some longer shorts before leaving. She said 'NO!'"
My children (six) of them would have NEVER told me NO....That simply was not going to happen with out serious consequences... if they did it only happened once...
Dad is a freaking wuss...little miss princess would be left home without use of her phone, Ipad, computer...to starve...and sulk....she also would have been grounded for at at least a couple of days...grounded meaning "in your room" denuded of anything tech...until you figure out how to get rid of that crappy attitude...
Yes, it was his goal that his daughter not wear inappropriate clothing. But, his larger goal was for her to learn by her own experience - not by compulsory force.
The older kids get, the more important it is that they have learned to make good choices with an understanding of why they are doing it. A parent won't always be around to force a child to make the right choice, and it is better, in my opinion, to help them learn when the opportunity is there.
Force and enforcement still has a more limited place in raising kids, but a wise parent exercises influence without force when it is feasible and possible to do so, IMHO.
Plus, I expect that this girl knows that her Dad's primary motivation is love for her, even though peer pressure/the desire for her peers' approval is very high.