Too Sexy, Too Soon?

(CBS)  Family Circle magazine's editor in chief, Linda Fears, said many children today are dressing far too provocatively for their age.

The problem, she says, is that many kids think they have to be sexy to be popular. Fears also said it's not healthy for children to emulate stars before they figure out who they are as individuals.

"It's scary," she told The Early Show co-anchor Hannah Storm. "Kids have always wanted to dress and look older. But i am not talking about 14-year-olds. We are talking about 9-year-olds and 10-year-olds, wanting to look a lot older. It's not okay. It's really about all the images from advertising to TV and movie and music videos. It's sexy all around them."

Even boys can push the envelope of what is appropriate. Fears said her son wears T-shirts with raunchy messages.

"There was an arrow pointing up that said 'The man,' and an arrow pointing down that said, 'The legend.' My husband said, 'No way,' " she said. "We said you are going to send a signal to people out there and they are going to get an impression that probably isn't true about what you think about or what you believe in the message plastered across your chest."

Fears said that there are some things parents can do to get their children to tone it down:

Avoid drama at the store. Look at photos of clothes your child likes before you go shopping so you can compromise at home.

If your daughter begs for something too tight or too short, suggest a bigger size or suggest leggings under mini-skirts.

Explain that wearing too much makeup sends bad signals to the world. Call around to the homes of your children's friends to find out what others' rules are.

For more information visit Family Circle's Web site.

[darlives]

I think that the problem lies with the American obsession with youth. Only in America does the mom and daughter wear almost the same type of clothing. I have a 5 year old and she is dressed in cute attire but not adult "cute" attire. I don't believe that midriff tops and low cut shirts and sagging are appropriate attire. If we want to instill something then it must be instilled in us as adults first. My husband is a middle-school teacher and he often comments on the inappropriate attire. We encourage our children to be mini adults from early cell phone usage to morning lattes at Star Bucks what do we expect. The comments about the tips well that's your opinon but I'm sure that for some women they are clueless as to how to set boundaries and if calling up another mom helps them to realize that they aren't the only one's stuck then why not? I won't have to call another mom but if someone called me, I'd be more than happy to help.

[pilatus12]

I see a couple of real problems with this article and approach -

"suggest" you daughter get a larger size or wear leggings... Is this about suggestions or rules? If you're just going to suggest, why bother?

Call others to find out their rules on make-up??? Who's making the rules here? Why should the rules you want to set for your child depend on the rules of others? If it's about your child fitting in - why do you want them to fit in with 10 year-olds who dress like hookers?

This fits in with a post above - quit being afraid of your kids and set some standards for pete's sake.

[YourDecision]

Well, it is about time someone, anyone, started raising cane about these young girls dressing the way they do. I have a daughter, and happily, she is now grown. These young girls dress today like little tarts and the parents allow it. How can this be? Are these parents brain-dead? Nine and ten year old girls should not be dressing like little *** objects, for obvious reasons. Ah, the voice of reason is music to my ears....

[Syndicate]

Start early. Teach them good values and go from there. Give them lots of hugs and kisses and praise them when they do good things or learn something new. Before long your there hero and they will want to be just like you. Off course mine are not teenagers yet but I think I got a good foundation.

[caffeinebase]

Um...Duh! With all due respect to some of the other posts, I can tell you that much of the misbehavior, and missed attire, rests solely with parental connivance-through-ignorance. I would observe innappropriatly dressed girls getting out of their parents cars (huggy, kissy, bye! Make sure you're riding low enough dear!) Parents MUST LEARN NOT TO FEAR THEIR KIDS REACTION IF THEY SAY NO! Express how you feel, no need to bully, and they do listen. Best conversations with my son were on the way to school. Many times I said "no", we still love each other.

[freestyle316]

Isn't this the sowing and reaping concept and example?
We adults sow irresponsibility, rouge mentality, I desire and deserve therefore "I am" and you better dish it out to me mentality, unfaithfulness, deceit, selfishness, no compassion, it's the "shell" of the person and the innards of their pocket book that are THE MOST IMPORTANT part of this short life consisting of about 29,000 days.

Is it really a wonder as to why our children want to emulate what they see?

[christiansin]

:) Were you disappointed barbaer2? I'm only kidding of course!

There isn't a lot of substance there when it comes to Paris Hilton, so I can definitly see why you could be drawn to that conclusion even after close inspection!

Paris Hilton's popularity just goes to show that no matter how dumb you are and no matter how little you have done with your life, if you have money and can make enough of a spectacle of yourself, you can even become President in the US.

[barbaer2]

thought i was at a porn site when i saw this on your home page!!