The Importance of Dressing our Children well.

Fads come and go among the sisters of my church. The most recent one that I have seen is Carol Tuttle's "Dress Your Truth" Programs and Books. Below is an exert from the Carol Tuttle website where this 'service' is describe:

"Dressing Your Truth is an educational service designed to teach you about your unique Type of beauty, give you insights and tools to feel more confident and look more beautiful, and provide products that make your shopping experience easy and affordable.

This practical, intuitive beauty makeover system empowers you to look and feel your best."

The concept of our appearance representing something about our personality is something that is universally recognized. I personally love the below synopsis from the website becomegorgeous.com:


"Its totally true that the clothes we wear represent the perfect reflection of who we really are. Besides all the instruments we have in order to communicate, our clothes represent probably the most important one. They show our personality, the way we see ourselves and the social group in which we want to be included. Before any verbal contact, a special communication takes place, which is made through the clothes we wear. These will say a lot about you, about your lifestyle and personality."

I would like to delve into how our dressing can affect our KIDS!
Firstly, lets look at a scenario....

Miss 10 has a mother that does not dress up. She rarely wears makeup and prefers bare feet to heals. Her hair is pulled back in a pony tail routinely every morning and remains that way until she flops into bed at night. This mother is busy, she has kids to get ready for school, church callings and a household to maintain. This results in her wearing her standard uniform of Capri's and a Tee day in and day out.......

Sound familiar?

There is nothing wrong with having bad days, with deciding that today I am going for comfort instead of looks. It is when this is your go to look every day that there is a problem. You see, Miss 10 is learning about the world of  a woman through your eyes. If we don't show our daughters the importance of grooming, than what values are they going to carry into adult hood with them? Whether we like it or not, we live in a superficial world. Whether we like it or not, the way we present ourselves will have an impact on how we are treated. ESPECIALLY as women.

So, what can you do? I have 4 girls. I make sure that at least every other day they see me dress in something that they think is pretty. This may just be a cute necklace or a skirt. I wear perfume and I make sure that I have lipstick in my purse at all times. I want my girls to grow up taking pride in themselves and the way that they present themselves to the world.

Which brings me to the second part of this post....

How the way we dress our children affects them.....

I have dealt with this first hand. I have children that I love very much visit in dirty, ugly clothes. Sometimes they will visit right after school and let me tell you, what they wear to interact with their peers is NOT acceptable. They frequently get ready for an outing and forget footwear and brushing their teeth is not something that is habitual for them, we have to remind them.
When the kids turn up looking scruffy and unkept it could just mean that they have been having fun being kids, right!?This is true,  It is  when family vacations are taken and the kids are wearing "grubbies" the whole time that I get concerned. No one is too busy to teach their child the importance of wearing unstained clothes. Mothers, if you have clothes that are faded and torn, throw them out! Or reserve them for yard play only... DO NOT dress your child for school in faded pants that look like they have been in use since the 1980s. Take PRIDE in the appearance of your family. When we negate to teach our children how to groom themselves properly we are setting them up for ridicule. Their friends, especially pre-teen to teens age bracket, will judge them on appearance, so while it is very noble to carry the motto "beauty is on the inside", this is not going to help a 12 year old find acceptance among their peers.

What does this say about the person who should be caring for them?
When your children present to the world in old clothes, unkept and shoeless it really does say alot about you as a parent. When I see little girls with ribbons in their hair , shoes on their feet and a smile on their face, I can see that her parents take pride in caring for their child and presenting her to the world in her best light. Remember, the people who see us dressed up on Sundays will likely see us during the week as well..... When we show up one day a week looking our best and look like hobos the rest of the time, it says that you are about keeping up appearance rather than maintaining a standard for the family. When a child has clothes that are 3 sizes too big for them every-time I see them, It tells me that you are too self absorbed to take your child's clothes in so that they fit.

We live in a world where whether we agree with it or not, appearance is defiantly important. Isn't it only fair on our kids that we present them, us and the whole family, as best we can?