Friday, September 6, 2013

Copic Coloring Class

Tonight I went to a Basic Copic Coloring class at Simple Pleasures. The teacher of the class was Shelby and it was a "Bring A Friend" class. I went with Michelle and although I have a bunch of copics and love to color with them, I actually learned some new things. Shelby also teaches some more specific classes like People and Landscapes so if you have an opportunity, you should try out one of her classes. She's a really good teacher!

Thursday, September 5, 2013

What are we doing to our children?

My beautiful God-Daughter came to spend the summer with us and I discovered that there are a LOT of things made for 8 year olds that shouldn't be. I do not believe that we should sexualize our children at this young age and then wonder why they want to dress so inappropriately at the age of 12 or 13. The reason why is that we have paved the way with inappropriate clothes while they are still children. I'll give you an example... I will call my God-daughter Dani for this post. Dani arrived in my home with clothes to wear for the summer. She had two bathing suits. One was a two-piece (which got thrown back in the box) and the other was a one piece with holes cut out of the sides. She's EIGHT....what exactly are you accenting with the cut-outs?? She is tall and lanky and awkward but both of those bathing suits make a statement. So I set off to buy her a plain bathing suit. Store after store after store revealed nothing but bathing suits with cut-outs, sheer panels, one strap, strapless, and itty bitty bikini tops and bottoms. It took FOREVER and about 15 stores before I found a plain suit in a cute print that was acceptable...and by acceptable I mean that it covered her whole body and she could play in it without worrying about it falling off. First day of summer camp....she comes upstairs in leggings and a tank top. Skin tight leggings and a skin tight tank top. Nope.....go change. Then we asked her our favorite question....Do you know what leggings would be called if they were pants? They'd be called PANTS. They are meant to add coverage under a long sweater or tunic or skirt....not to show off your tiny butt. While I took her shopping several times, I was appalled to find shirts with sheer backs, ruching to creative cleavage in the front, and tiny, tiny shorts that barely covered her underwear. Who is she trying to be sexy for? And let me go ahead and tell you that if you are someone who says, Oh that isn't sexy, it's cute. If you put that same style on an adult and it is meant to be sexy, it shouldn't be on a little girl. We are teaching our girls to objectify their bodies and then when they become teenagers, they have to go to even further extremes because this seems tame to them. After all, they wore it when they were children! Teach them respect for their bodies and let them dress like children. There is nothing wrong with knee length shorts or T-shirts or whole bathing suits.