And Exactly Who Would Wear This?

That's the thought DD and I had, oh, about 50 times the other day as we were trying to find a modest swimsuit for her, and if you have a daughter over the age of 2, I think you know exactly what I'm talking about!

DD dresses extremely modestly by her own choosing: no shorts, no V-necks, no sleeveless tops, and if she absolutely must wear a swimsuit, a 1-piece with a relatively high neck and high back and something to cover her thighs. She dislikes most "bling" on her clothes and is quite happy in a simple T-shirt and jeans or capris. No floral designs or crazy patterns. She likes her Wesleyan colleges, Ohio State and Christian shirts but otherwise no advertising or anything like that. Just plain and simple.

So you can imagine all the *fun* we had while shopping for a swimsuit. Adding to the difficulty with her preferences, she is a very petite 14-year-old who still shops in the girls' department. So that automatically eliminated the Hannah Montana and Disney character suits, all the 2-piece suits, and since it's the end of May, of course the selection is down to bare bones because really, who has waited until May to buy their suit??? Shesh! After looking here in town over the past couple weeks, we headed off to a neighboring town with different stores. First stop: Old Navy. Actually found a pair of swim shorts that fit her quite nicely, but no swimsuit. They were kind enough to hold the shorts for us, so off we went to Target. Nothing there she even cared to take to the dressing room. Over to the mall. JC Penney had 2 suits she tried on, but waaaayyy too low cut in the back. Macy's had nothing but 2-piece, and then we went to Sears. What do you know, they actually had several in her size that she liked! Relatively undecorated, nicely modest and thankfully she liked the one that fit best! Wooo Hoooo! One advantage to waiting until this "late" in the season is that the suit was on sale for under $20, instead of the original price of $42. Sorry, not paying THAT much for a suit for me, much less a child who will outgrow it in one season! So, after 4 hours of shopping, we bought the suit, went back to Old Navy and got the shorts, and unbelievably, together they look like they were meant to a pair! The colors match, even the designs match. Definitely Divine Intervention!

While we had a happy, tired ending, it was a bit discouraging, as shopping for her can be. The styles of clothes for young girls sometimes just makes you sick. Cut down to here, slit up to there.....A 14-year-old certainly doesn't need to be showing a whole lot of skin, much less a 4-year-old! And yet, swimsuits with an open back below the small of the back, Daisy Duke shorts, the sweats and t-shirts with suggestive sayings, all in girls' sizes from 6-18. I find it hard to believe that parents actually let their daughters wear these things, but obviously someone does, because it's selling. Thankfully DD won't consider clothes like that because I wouldn't let her even in the dressing room with them, much less wear them at school.

I'm glad we belong to a church where the youth pastor stresses modesty in dress and the reasons for it. I'm glad my children go to a youth camp that requires modest clothing. I'm glad my children have chosen for themselves to be modest and not provocative. I can't start a revolt all by myself, but I can choose where I spend my money for clothing and on what items. And if that means we shop for for hours out of town, then that's okay. I just wish whoever is designing for teens and preteens and young girls would let them dress like girls and not like adult wannabes. They will grow up soon enough all on their own.