This can NOT be our daughters' role model. How many times have I had to see this picture staring at me at the checkout counter? How many times have my daughters viewed it or my son? Even once is too many. Since we are starting to get things ready for our tea party, I thought this month would be the perfect time to review modesty and also talk about how we dress for Mass.
I shared this picture with our group last night. I don't think most of them even recognized who it was. It certainly doesn't look like Hannah Montana. I pointed out that the way she was dressed, people weren't seeing her for any of the gifts that God had given her. We didn't see her voice or her acting skills, but just her body. I used the book,
Dressing With Dignity by Colleen Hammond in helping to plan my short lesson.
We talked about how we should dress for Mass. We are located near a college campus and sometimes the outfits worn to Mass make me so sad. I know they can be a distraction to me. I can't imagine what it may be doing to my teenage son. We need to make sure to be discussing clothing choices with our girls.
For our activity, the girls got to be fashion designers. They got to design an outfit to wear to church and also a casual one. Moms were to help them decide what would be appropriate lengths for their skirts or shorts. This was a huge hit. The girls seemed to really enjoy creating their dolls. Because our meeting was shortened, they really only had time to make one, but some of the girls gathered materials to take home with them to finish. I supplied them with lots of fabric scraps, ribbon, yarn and googly eyes. I also made card stock templates of the doll for the girls to help them cut out outfits. I got the template from
Wendy's Activities.
It's never to early to start talking to our daughters about modesty. If we wait until they are teenagers, it's going to be too late. This was certainly a fun and easy way to start or continue that discussion.
