Has anyone else noticed that most parents/carers don't bother with their child's appearance beyond getting them dressed? I take my 4 year old, Sally, to school every day and to church every Sunday and the number of children who are poorly groomed is shocking to me! The funny part is that most of the parents of those kids look well groomed. Kids are fairly helpless in that category, why don't parents help them out? I can understand kids who play so hard that by the end of the day their clothes & hair are a wreck, but I often see kids who look like their hair has NEVER been touched by a brush and their clothes are dirty and wrinkled, as they are being dropped off at school. My Sally very rarely goes out without her hair combed (and if it happens, it's because daddy took her out before I could comb it!) and even if she doesn't always match, her clothes are clean. I realize that this is incredibly silly, but it really bugs me.
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
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I might have junky kids occasionally. Especially when it comes to PetShopgirl's hair. When it was long I could brush and style in lots of cute ways, but since she cut it off and donated it to Locks of Love it has been really hard to style. I think to make it look really nice I would have to wash and blow dry it every time and, being a curly-haired person, I am just not very good with a blow-dryer. Also, molly, you have currently two kids. When I had two kids, it was much easier for me to keep them looking clean and cute, once I had a third one it was much harder. As children grow up and get their own ideas about how they want to look, it gets harder to force your own will on them. Jedi will wear whatever is handy. He doesn't care what he is wearing so Beau Brummel and I pick out his clothes for him, he always looks pretty good. HotDog likes to pick out his own clothes, but is pretty open to suggestions. Both don't mind having their hair styled. PetShopgirl is super opinionated about what she wears. She has been known to change an outfit multiple times before school complete with a couple tantrums because her socks have lumps or her sweater is too thin/too thick/too long. Sometimes I have to chose between styling her hair or having her brush her teeth (and teeth are always going to come first) because I can hear the bus coming down the street. But my kids look pretty good most of the the time. I think we have more of a junky mom problem in our family. I realized last night that I hadn't had a shower since Sunday (gross!) because I was so busy with house cleaning, volunteering in the kids' classes, grocery shopping, etc., The only day I really pull out all the stops is Sunday. I think people from church get a big shock when they see me on a week day. It is pretty sad when you say you need more hats to cover up your bad, dirty hair and your husband says he thinks you just need to shower more often.
Hey, hey! Got the same problem with having a shower! So hard to find time for myself, whereas my husband takes a shower everyday. As for the kids, I really don't care about how they look and dress. Dirty clothes or hair untidy (as long as they get in bed clean at night), it does not change by an inch the opinion and love I give to them. I find it quite depressing that small kids are fashion victims and obsessed about "looking good" so early in life. Don't you think it is sad? I agree that if you go to church or to special occasion, you should make an effort, but not for school. This is not the Miss world election. And I think kids should learn to value other things than outside look. I don't want to push them in this direction because our consumption-society will inevitably push them there anyway. I think also that one purpose of looking good is to find the love of your life, so why do that before you're 15? Build elsewhere your strength, because you'll have time later to brush your hair and wear gorgeous clothes.
I hope that you all don't think I'm superficial- because I'm really NOT. I'm not saying that the kids' clothes have to match and be designer and perfect- just clean. And as for the hair- who cares if it's styled- just run a brush through it so it doesn't look like a bird's nest.
p.s. I also have the "junky mom" syndrome- I often miss out on showers and my shirt almost always has smears of something or other from the baby! But I usually start out with clean clothes, and I brush my hair before putting it into the daily pony tail that prevents the baby from pulling it.
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