FashBlog.com

By Christina VanGinkel

You cannot walk down a city or small town street anywhere without seeing young kids and teenagers dressed in fashions that would shock, or at the least, raise eyebrows, of the average adult. You know the styles I am referring to, or else you have walked those streets with your eyes closed. Jeans and shirts that appear to have come from the rag pile of the nearest second hand clothing store, so ripped and torn that there is no way they could possibly be new, as who in their right mind would pay for it. In addition, shirts with sayings emblazoned across the fronts of them that leave even open-minded adults with gaping mouths in astonishment to what they have just read. (I am not talking vulgarity, just saying that make you wonder what goes through teenager's minds).

How in the world you wonder could a parent let their child out of the house, into public, wearing such trash, quite easily, in all actuality.

If you are a parent of a pre-teen or teenager, ask yourself how many battles over clothing you have waged with your child or children in plural over the years. Next, ask yourself how many other battles have been fought over other serious matters. As a mother of three, two now grown and one about to hit the big thirteen in just a matter of weeks, I took a serious look at this a few weeks past when I happened to have a very unwanted front seat to a friend's eruption over what her teenage son was wearing. Mind you, this boy is a straight 'A' student, and has been consistently all through middle school and his first three years of high school. He is active in several sports and academic groups. He tutors younger kids, and acts as a reading buddy for a kindergarten class. He also works part time, at the same job he has held for three years. For all intent and purpose, he is every parent's dream child. He was about to leave the house, to go shopping at the mall with a group of friends, when his mother stopped him and told him to change into something decent. Let me backtrack here and say that this same mother recently told me how proud she was of her son, the same son she was now arguing with, for being responsible enough to not only have saved quite a bit of his paychecks over the years, but to have also purchased all of his own school clothes this year!

I personally saw nothing in his dress or manner that I have not witnessed daily walking around, or hanging out in the average crowd of teenagers. I was not offended in any way by his dress, nor could I imagine anyone else would be either, except, apparently, for his mother. I was hesitant to say anything to her in front of her son, but when he had left the room, I did ask her if the battle was worth it, as after all, it was just clothes, nothing even very outlandish, just an outfit that would allow him to blend with the crowd. I asked her if he was a good kid, if she had more important battles and discussions to wage with him. We talked for a while, and it reminded me that I will soon be making the same decisions with my youngest that she is now with her son, and that I did not too many years ago with my two oldest.

She was still undecided whether to argue with him about his clothes, or just to let it go. Personally, I am going to save my battles, and my talking with my son for more important things in life than if his knees show through the holes in his jeans.