In what ways would you teach your teenager, child, or young adult to dress appropriately for certain situations?

[Anonymous]

I've heard quite a few times growing up phrases such as "Go change" followed by weeks later "Why don't you look nice?" or "Is that what you're wearing?" "I hope you're not wearing those shorts out!" but without explanation or an "I don't care" mumbled under their breath. It left me confused, frustrated, and upset quite often cause I didn't understand and nothing was explained till later on. But aren't there better ways to teach children of any age how to dress for any situation the right way without those common phrases? I couldn't even wear a dress around my own friends that I grew up with a cause, oh well it's easy to pull off to have sex and you'd be uncomfortable if someone saw you in and tried flirting and stuff with you. And if my friends really wanted to do stuff to me they would've done it by now. I've also heard the constant phrase that i don't care about how I look when that's far from true it's that it bothers me a lot.

[wheist9095]

That is a tough one, because it depends entirely on what culture you are in and what culture your child will be in. I think a lot of the time parents push their values on their children because that's what they know, it's not a bad thing it's just difficult to keep up with the changing values in any given society.

I think my best bet would be to discuss what is and is not appropriate with someone at a given age, like you have to wear certain clothes to school to fit the dress code, you have to wear certain clothes because it looks professional for a job or an interview, a lot of it's just explaining different social norms.

And then there is the sexual aspect of it all, a lot of parents really hate having their child sexualized at all, whether it be too short shorts or a dress or a skirt that comes up a little too high or a shirt that goes down a little too low, because it is their child. They want their child to be respected and not objectified, and since people are very judgmental if someone doesn't dress professionally they believe that their child will not be respected.

Also there's the whole. . . Grown ass men being super creepy around teenage girls, I think a lot of parents remember that happening to them as well because it never stopped and they want to try and avoid some of that for their children?