My Daughter, She Was a Doozey

Becky was a fun child. Let's just say that her taste in clothing and accessories left a bit to be desired. I understand that little girls are all about bright colors (or Bright! Colors! as the case may be) and jewelry (as much as they can possibly wear at one time, all of it made of plastic) and prints. Oh, the prints. Stripes and polka dots and anything that looks like the 80's regurgitated into the 21st century.

Not my daughter, though. She wasn't about Hello Kitty or Tinker Bell or stripes and dots. No, my daughter was a Ho In Training.

Becky was drawn to things like fishnet stockings and press-on nails (pre-painted bright red, no doubt) and leopard print anything. We heavily monitored what she could and could not purchase, and for very obvious reasons I rarely let her choose her own clothing. It it were up to her, she would have worn high heels, fishnets, micro skirts, hot pink leopard print shirts, red nails long enough to scratch her kneecaps without leaning over, and enough rhinestones to look like a Bedazzler attacked her. And because that wouldn't have been enough all at one time, she would have topped this off with clip on earrings that were either larger than her head or hung to her waistband and jingled when she shook her head. Oh, and makeup. Tons of it.

That would be my daughter. We're grateful that she outgrew this stage because we priced a steel cage to encase her bedroom with. We simply couldn't afford to lock her away from the world until she became an adult.

The ironic thing is that Micah is pretty much the boy equivalent of his sister. The boy even wears skirts. Big, full, twirly ones. And he has a thing for Becky's small gown collection. He tries them on weekly to see which one fits better *this* time. He wears cowboy boots with shorts, and pajamas in public, and neckties with t-shirts and sweats. And we let him.

I have to wonder what the difference is in my parenting. Is it that I'm so much more seasoned after all these years and realize that a happy kid is a good thing and clothes are just superficial? Or is it Micah that changed me, making me realize that I need to celebrate who the kids are, no matter how their choices differ from mine?

But for the record, I won't be making that up to Becky. I still won't let her be seen in public in fishnets and rhinestone encrusted leopard print leotards.

Huh. Maybe I haven't changed all that much.

5 comments:

Michelle said...

Love it. I think everyone's got their boundaries with their kids... and with girls I think most of us are a little more sensitive to the "ho" look and what that might lead to down the road where it seems safer (I don't think that's quite the right word, but...) for boys? Maybe?

Flea said...

I dunno ... she's a cute kid, but I really think that leopard print and a micro mini would look great on her. ;)

Yeah, and I'll run right out and get those for Maybelline as well. You've raised beautiful kids, Karen.

Roger Miller said...

just wait until she comes home from college that first time...

I believe we as parents change with each child. Child #1 drops pacifier on ground, needs to be cleaned and sanitized before the child can ever look at it again. Child #4, you dust it off and plug it back in. :-)

Karen Deborah said...

This is hilarious. I love it.

Debbie @ Three Weddings said...

Dolly Parton says that when she was a kid she wanted to dress like the town tramp and that's what she modeled her look after. She did pretty well. **Hee hee**

I'm with you on the fishnets!