The Sunday News
SOMETIME last week, I engaged in an interesting conversation with an old friend at a rather unconventional place. We discussed on whether the way you dress reflect good or badly on your child? It so happened that I had found an ear stud in one of my jean pockets and I tried to plug it in my ear to check if my piercing was still there.
As I was frantically but carefully trying to wear the stud my friend (a she) screamed, “What sort of parent are you going to be seeing as you still want to wear studs.”
My response was rather cynical of course, knowing that she is a mother and the fact that she was clad in a vest and shorts that would surely have heads turning.
She stood her ground obviously saying she was dressed casually and that the way she was dressed would never negatively affect her child in anyway.
I thought otherwise but that’s the reason for penning this topic.
Anyway you don’t necessarily have to change the way you dress once you become a parent but you definitely have to be a good example to your kids.
For any person planning on becoming a parent or anyone who has children, their main role would be to care for and prepare their children for independent survival as an adult.
We all begin life solely dependent on our parents, who if by the Lord’s grace manage to raise us successfully, we leave home as self-respecting and self-responsible adults.
Your dressing and the way you behave around your child influences their decisions and plays a vital role in the development of their character in future.
Naturally, children will always emulate what they see from their parents and peers.
Think about it, if you as a father walk around with your jeans dropped, your son will inevitably do the same. If your daughter sees you wearing skimpy outfits all the time she will do the same and there is nothing you can do to stop the children because they will question why you get to dress in that manner.
It’s not news that your wardrobe says a lot about you. What you wear can inform people around you of your type of employment, as well as your ambitions, emotions and spending habits. And now it’s even launched a whole new type of psychology.
The way one dresses, as I noted in last week’s issue, projects a good or bad image of you. If you desire to be respected then you ought to dress in an appropriate attire.
Imagine trying to discipline your sixteen year old son or daughter about the dangers of drinking and going out scantily dressed, while you dress inappropriately — baggy and dropped jeans, cap flipped back, short skimpy dress and cropped tops?
The fact that you are called a parent means that you are capable of heading your own family. It means you are mature enough to care for and protect your little ones.
The way you dress not only doesn’t send a message to your child but the people around you. Imagine dropping or picking up your child at school and you are inappropriately dressed. What will the other kids say about you to your child? They will obviously make fun of your child and tease him or her. That is a sure sign of bad parenting. Another thing I have to emphasise on is the way we dress our kids. Just because you like a certain TV personality’s dressing doesn’t give you the right to turn your child into an experimental subject.
Dress your child like a child, he or she deserves the right to be dressed smartly and adored as a little person.
I read an article online, which stated that people need licences to have children.
To top that notion they added pictures of parents with bad parenting skills, giving weight to the idea.
The pictures captured bad parenting at its worst, with toddlers shown clutching rifles, school kids dressed in giant condom wrappers and babies propped up with cans of beer.
But all what we are saying is that parents should learn to dress appropriately so that their children do not need to look very far for role models in dressing.
Remember it’s not about buying new outfits every now and then but about knowing what fits you and the statement you want to make out there.
Till next week let’s keep styling. For feedback please sms or whatsapp ONLY 0772337433. You can also link up with me via e mail – [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> hit me up on Facebook – Pete Matika.
