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Lindsay Metcalf
on May 22 2013 - 06:00 AM
When that tornado siren sounds, I'm in the basement
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mara williams
on May 21 2013 - 06:00 AM
Summer break has this mom on a house upkeep war path.
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Anyone who really knows me, knows I’ve always wanted a little girl. Not instead of our two boys but as well as. Just always figured I’d have three kids — two boys and a girl.
But then I got old, not to mention stressed with a tanking economy and a struggling newspaper industry I can never give up, and realized a third one wasn’t in the cards. No little girl. (And don’t ask me why I have always assumed a third one would be a girl anyway. I’m not typically lucky like that…)
Now, I’m OK with it. Thankful in fact that no girls will be raised in our home. I swear I don’t think I could handle it. I’m not even talking about the drama I hear about. Or the moods. Hell, ask my husband, I’ve invented some of that.
It’s the wardrobe!
All I needed was to sit in the stands at five home high school football games and I was cured! Warning: Break out the Guy Lombardo music, grab the rocking chair and crackers to mush between my gums, I’m an old lady. An old fuddy duddy. I’m not just sounding like my mother, but my grandmother (my mother's mother, and let’s just say that’s not a good thing!)
But come on. Is there a need to show everything you have, when everything you have is just 14 years old? Or even 16?
In those five games, and basically just the first half because we usually duck out after the band performs at half time, it seems all I saw of high school girls is skin. Bare legs all the way up to panty line. Exposed bellies all the way up to bra lines. And of course the cleavage. (I swear cleavage is the new accessory, and not just of high schoolers.)
The first few times, of watching the bare skin walk by, I just dropped my jaw and shook my head. Then, at one point I had to elbow my husband and talk about how I feel like my mother or her mother. As the weeks have passed, the cooler weather hasn’t even prompted the short shorts be put away, so I’ve lamented to my girlfriends — especially the ones with little girls — about how insane the latest fashions are.
“How do moms let their girls out of the house with all their body parts exposed?” I say ridiculously.
I’ve been known to go to extremes to prove a point, so I swear if I had a teenage girl I could just see myself buying her those plaid shirts of years ago, the ones with the doily white collar that covers have the torso. Dresses, I’m sure would go to the knee, none of these behind-high ones. There’d be baggie jeans and those ole’ rugby shirts.
Of course oldest says I’m crazy. And that girls look “Hot.” (Oh wait, he quickly corrects himself and says the once-old-and-now-new-again cool word is “fine.” Hot apparently isn’t vogue anymore. Thank you for clarifying, dear son.)
So I think I don’t have a little girl for a reason. Tube socks and ratty jeans, even ones that I pay to have giant holes in, I can do. Jokes about bodily functions, sign me up.
But take me to a football game where my child is walking the bleachers with half her everything coming out? Yeah, I'm just loving our two boys.
LOL! That is hilarious! As a mom of 2 girls, I have to laugh or I'll cry. Mine aren't there yet, but they are bombarded with these images and I'm sure our battles will soon follow. We need more roll models--for both boys and girls--who find their power not in looks, but in character.My favorite QuikTrip commercial is the one where the girl keeps coming downstairs in different outfits, only to have her longsuffering father send her repeatedly up to her room to change. My daughter gets wardrobe inspections every time she goes anywhere. Modesty is a good thing!I am lucky. Mine is a tomboy. However, I know of other girls who pack the skimpy clothes in their backpack & wear something else out of the door.First: I love you for leaving the football games after the band plays at halftime! I hate-HATE-football but I went to the games because my son was on the drumline of the award-winning Lawrence High School Marching Lions, but I always felt a little guilty about sneaking out after the band's big moment. Not sure why I felt guilty, as I'm pretty damn sure that the football parents made no particular effort to attend (even local) band competitions... Whatever the reason, I'm glad to know I have a sister in Halftime Hooky. Second: Glad you have settled into contentment on the no-girls household issue. My girl is my second child and she was a challenge from the moment of conception. Tantrums. Drama. Mood swings... (come to think of it, if she were any more like her father, I'd have had to divorce her, too!) But the one thing I never had to deal with was the sexy tween or teen clothing. Turns out my daughter is gay, but I think that even if she were straight, she would still have preferred pants, body-covering shirts, and no ogling from teen boys in heat. I loved that we did not have to fight over midriff-baring tops and butt-revealing skirts. For prom, I took her to the formal shop and rented her a tux. Since it was Lawrence, nobody batted an eye. She looked wonderful in the tux. And I had no worries that she'd wind up preggers that magical night. ;-)First: I love you for leaving the football games after the band plays at halftime! I hate-HATE-football but I went to the games because my son was on the drumline of the award-winning Lawrence High School Marching Lions, but I always felt a little guilty about sneaking out after the band's big moment. Not sure why I felt guilty, as I'm pretty damn sure that the football parents made no particular effort to attend (even local) band competitions... Whatever the reason, I'm glad to know I have a sister in Halftime Hooky. Second: Glad you have settled into contentment on the no-girls household issue. My girl is my second child and she was a challenge from the moment of conception. Tantrums. Drama. Mood swings... (come to think of it, if she were any more like her father, I'd have had to divorce her, too!) But the one thing I never had to deal with was the sexy tween or teen clothing. Turns out my daughter is gay, but I think that even if she were straight, she would still have preferred pants, body-covering shirts, and no ogling from teen boys in heat. I loved that we did not have to fight over midriff-baring tops and butt-revealing skirts. For prom, I took her to the formal shop and rented her a tux. Since it was Lawrence, nobody batted an eye. She looked wonderful in the tux. And I had no worries that she'd wind up preggers that magical night. ;-)syzygy, great attitude. I can tell you're a great momma! Wanted to confirm your observation about the girls in the stands at football wearing the shorties... yep, it's disgusting from this momma's view. But it does make them POPULAR. take one look at the facebook photos of them posing in front of movie theater big mirrors all lined up like... and these moms don't care or don't check facebook... however, i will say that not all girls are the same. the "regular" girls were IN the band wearing the very not fashionable band pants at the football game. the regular girls were off doing fun girl things like participating in plays or church retreats or hanging with their friends at the coffeeshop. my point is this, not every girl at the football game represents all girls in middle and high school. the smart ones you want your son to bring home are . . . someplace else. the ones who are lacking the self esteem to be themselves are doing the SAME SAME SAME thing at the football game. followers.I'll also confirm that it is 100 times harder to be the mom of a middle school girl than a middle school boy... I thank God every day for giving me one of each because I don't think I could go through this part again.We have been fighting the tank top battle since 7th grade and are losing. DD complains that she is not bad, and compared to others she's not, but she still shows too much skin. DH told her he was embarrassed for her friends who show too much. Didn't faze her at all. Yes, boys are easier, but girls have a fun side too. Pretty sure,no sure that DS would not set foot in JoAnns or Michaels...get a mani/pedi or even a hair cut if not absolutely necessary.So true!! It's hard to shop when they are in that in between stage. Mine is 12 and we are now having the issue of a costume for her. When did it become ok for a preteen to dress up an a skimpoy costume for halloween? Our next stop is goodwill.Annie makes a good point..those half dressed girls have facebook pages that list them as fluent in"slutese" and "drunken slur"...it makes me so sad for them. I just want to throw a blanket on them and bring them home for a talk about respecting ourselves if we expect anyone to respect us! I do have a teenage girl--and she was at all our football games wearing two layers of clothes--her full coverage street clothes under her band uniform. Not all girls are half nekid, and a lot of them agree that cleavage is the new accessory that can go away NOW!Oh, if ever I had something to say, now is the time! I own a local party company for girls and our motto at our parties is, "Modest Is Hottest!!" We teach girls the "Head, shoulders, knees, and toes" method. The idea is that the girls should be able to put both hands on the head, shoulders, knees, and toes without showing any skin between thier top and bottom, and without having anything fall out! No booties coming out the top of jeans, or falling out the bottom of shorts. Shirts should cover up even when you bend over to touch your toes. It's a great method, and works for us every time! It's definitely our modesty policy in our home!Great conversation! Bellebrigade, I'm totally going to use the head-shoulders-knees-and-toes test with my kids. Excellent idea!Know what you mean. I can't stand it when the girls are wearing low slung jeans with shirts tha barely meet the jeans. Then when they bend over thier cracks are showing. I saw an employee at Bed, Bath and Beyond bend a little doing stock work. I about died. Then when I checked out I asked if they had a dress code. The cashier said yes, but the employees ignore it. At 15 DH isn't dating yet, I can't wait to see what kind of a girl he brings home. Oh yeah, sagging for boys irritates me just as much. Fortunately he has no interest in sagging.
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