Is it normal to be annoyed with parents that do this?

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9 Comments

Is it normal to get annoyed when parents make their little girls dress super nice constantly? There's this mom I always see at the park who brings her daughters and son there a lot. They are always dressed wearing skirts, tights and nice blouses with ribbons in their hair while her son is also dressed nice, but more casual.

They want to play in the sand, climb trees, play with mud, and just act like the little kids that they are. But their mom doesn't let them, not the girls anyway. Whenever they start doing something that might get them dirty, she gets upset and lectures them. Why can't she let them be themselves and just buy them some jeans and t-shirts and save the nice clothes for special occasions? But no, they must act like proper little girls instead of doing their own thing, while her son is perfectly allowed to play in the mud and get dirty because that's normal. Little girls have to be dainty and pretty, but little boys get to rough house and have fun because that's "boyish".

I see this kind of double standard happen all the time. Can't parents just let their kids be themselves?

Voting Results
72% Normal
Based on 57 votes (41 yes)
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Comments ( 9 )
  • Avant-Garde
    12 years ago

    I hate this too. It's sexism. Why can't they let their kids be kids? Why can't they let them be individuals?!

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  • RinTin
    12 years ago

    It is annoying. What Zippy said. ^

    In elementary school my friends and I use to play in the mud during recess. We'd create cities and stuff, called Mudmania hehe. We had hay fights when they cut the grass and we climbed trees after school. We use to catch crane flies and scare people. :)

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  • SingerActressDancerGirl
    12 years ago

    Yes i could see how it could be annoying seeing kids so fancy because really the most fun part of being a kid is having fun! I definitely dont want to look back at my childhood and only have memories of times i couldnt do things! Yes sometimes its fun to dress fancy but a park? Really? Kids should have fun and play and not have any sort of stress what so ever about what they wear! Save that for there teenage years! Kids need to play and get dirty! :)

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  • charli.m
    11 years ago

    It annoys me when parents won't let kids get dirty. It's part of being a kid.

    Girly stuff in general annoys me.

    Years ago when I was doing a placement at a centre, a four year old boy came in wearing white designer jeans. They were black by the end of the day. His mother blew up. Dunno what the stupid bitch expected, I mean really...

    One point, though, it is possible that the girls CHOOSE to wear their best clothes, and mum just doesn't want them to get dirty because they're all dressed up (still stupid, clothes can be washed...). I mention this, cos I look after a little girl at the moment who ALWAYS wants to wear pretty frilly dresses and skirts and tutu's, no matter how often I put out jeans for her to wear.

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  • Alison89
    12 years ago

    Why should it annoy you that someone is doing the thing she thinks is right for her kids?

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    • Zippy
      12 years ago

      Because it seems controlling to me. Yes, she might think it's right and she obviously cares. That's great, some parents don't care at all and ignore their children. But she's being pushy and she's pressuring them to act like how girls "should" act instead of being themselves and having fun.

      The same thing bothers me with dads who try to push their boys into sports, when maybe all they'd rather do is read or paint. Pressuring children into these gender roles and these pre-made molds irritates me because I think kids should just have the freedom to be themselves, whether their personality matches their sex/race/whatever or not.

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      • Alison89
        12 years ago

        Yeah. I can see your point. I can see how pushing someone to conform would be an annoyance.

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    • Charmo
      12 years ago

      Would it annoy you if a parent was beating their child because they thought "it was right for them"? Granted, this is more extreme than the OP's example, but the point is, it doesn't matter if the parent thinks it's right or not if the action is demonstrably bad or harmful.

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      • Alison89
        12 years ago

        Yeah. That's a little more extreme. It wasn't that long ago that people beating their kids was the norm.

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