Telling It Like It Is

Smilie Saturday: Linky Love Weekend Roundup Second Edition

It’s the beginning of a long holiday weekend, with Memorial Day coming on Monday, so I wanted to end this week with a Smilie Saturday Linky Love post to showcase some great articles I’ve been reading that I’m sure you will enjoy as much as I have. You all are awesome writers, so keep up the good work!

I’ve also been interviewing some fabulous authors of books dealing with children and teens, including someone who was on the APA Task Force that I wrote about in my post about sexualizing children, and who participated in developing the in-depth APA Report I linked to in that article. That will be a great article (if I say so myself), so stay tuned for that. Now let’s get to the Weekend Roundup, shall we?

Weekend Roundup

Lynnae has begun a series of posts called (Not) Keeping Up With Our Parents, where Lynnae discusses her thoughts on the book “(Not) Keeping Up With Our Parents: The Decline of the Professional Middle Class” by author Nan Mooney. Entitlement issues has always been a topic that bothers me immensely, and anyone that has been a subscribed reader of my blog from its inception knows how strongly I feel about that subject.

FrugalDad wrote a fabulous article entitled How to Get Out of Credit Card Debt, and Stay Out, and it’s a great read with informative tips for people trying to get out of debt. With gas prices going up seemingly every ten minutes, eliminating debt (or at least greatly reducing debt) is a very wise plan.

Speaking of money and debt, check out Peter’s discussion Good News: Gas Prices Will Continue to Rise, and see if you can think of some ways you will or have begun tightening your financial “belt” due to higher gas prices. My hubby and I have been discussing trading in our vehicles and getting cars that are much more gas efficient, but my hubby is very tall so trying to find a vehicle he can even fit in creates another set of problems.

Allan Cockerill’s post Is It Possible To Have An Affair Without Sex is very interesting to say the least, including the video he’s running at the conclusion of the article. Cheating spouses are some the lowest forms of the human species in my opinion, and anyone considering having an affair needs to either fix the problems in their marriage or get out of the marriage and move on with their life, but don’t cheat on your spouse.

Christine’s post 10 Summer Jobs Your Teen May Not Have Considered is a must read for anyone with tweens or teens looking to find a job over the summer. The school year is almost over and kids will be looking for ways to make some money, and having a summer job is a great way of teaching kids responsibility and money management, as well as a great way of building self-esteem in children.

Last but not least, Jeremy and wife are Introducing Baby Caitlin into the world, weighing in at 5 lbs 6 oz, six full weeks ahead of the due date. The idea of giving birth to a 5 lb baby seems so foreign to me since each of mine weighed more than 8 lbs, and one son weighed 11 lbs! Mine must have weighed 5 lbs when I was about six months pregnant! Congratulations to Jeremy and family on the new arrival!

Have you made your Memorial Day plans yet? What will you be doing? I’ll be putting my hubby to work cooking out on the grill for sure, whipping us up some tasty BBQ slathered in sauce that sticks to the ribs. We will also be remembering and honoring those who gave their lives so that we can live in Freedom, including my father in-law who served in two wars, and saying prayers for our soldiers overseas and their families.

Posted in Blogging, Children, Education, Family, Marriage, Men, Parenting, Relationships, Teenagers, Women on May 24, 2008

Tags: Tags: 10 summer jobs your teen may not have considered, gas prices will continue to rise, how to get out of credit card debt, is it possible to have an affair without sex, linky love, memorial day, not keeping up with our parents, sexualizing children, smilie saturday, weekend roundup

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You Are What You Wear: What Your Clothes Say About You

What do your clothes say about you? When you walk down the street or are out in public, what kind of attention are you attracting? Do people smile, stare, point at you and laugh, look away, or simply ignore you altogether? Like it or not, people judge a book by its cover. While it may not seem fair that people develop an immediate impression of who you are simply by the clothes you wear, it’s still true that your clothes tell a story about your personality and how you are likely to be perceived by others.

With current fashion trends as they are, it seems that modesty and dressing appropriately has gone right out the window, replaced by the shortest, tightest, most revealing clothes women and tween-teen girls can find. Astonishingly plunging necklines, crop tops, mini or micro mini-skirts, short-shorts (or daisy dukes), and other provocative clothing styles that leave little to the imagination. The clothes you choose to wear on a daily basis provides important information about you as a person, your approximate education level, your income or social status, and even your level of self-esteem. What story is your clothes telling about you? (Men, What do your clothes say about you too?)

A recent telephone conversation with my 23 year-old daughter really drove home the point about girls and young women thinking they are being fashion conscious, but are really missing the mark. It seems my daughter has been trying to help a friend of hers understand why men have been treating the friend disrespectfully, from catcalls to sexual propositions, and how her provocative style of dress just might have something to do with it. This friend also seems to be surprised by the negative reaction she gets from female peers, and struggles to understand why she has lost friendships since “becoming fashionable”.

When women dress in a skimpy, seductive style of dress akin to a street corner hooker, they shouldn’t be too surprised when men treat them with less respect and dignity than a woman dressed more modestly. You teach people how to treat you. “Is what you wear who you are?” While it may be true that what you wear doesn’t define you as a person, what you wear is a reflection of who you are, so choose wisely. Before you choose your outfit for the day, it’s important to think carefully about how you want other people to view you and interpret your personality and intentions.

There are many clothing personality styles out there to choose from, from sloppy dressers (“I don’t care about my appearance”) to expensive designer styles, but the skimpy dressers who opt to wear the most inappropriate, skanky looking outfits that exude a poor self-image is truly alarming. Individuals may look at these wild, scandalous, “fashionable” outfits as a sign that you may have less than honorable intentions, rather than thinking you have a great sense of style.

Whatever bait you use determines the type of fish you’ll catch. Having your ass-sets hanging out, your padded-bra enhanced “cleavage” falling out of your revealing top, boys and men are not going to be thinking about what a nice personality you might have. They are much more likely to have thoughts of wanting to “hit that” at the first opportunity possible. Is that really what you want? What you wear is a reflection of who you are as a person. Wear clothes that show your individuality, interests and real personality instead of wearing clothes that may illicit obscene and unnecessary misconceptions about you.

Even very young girls are being targeted to dress seductively and inappropriately, believed by many to be fueled by pop music stars, television and movies, teen magazines and clothing manufacturers. Personally, I blame the parents for buying these clothes for their young children and teens, or allowing them to be accepted as gifts from others.

The sexualizing of children, both girls and boys, has been going on for many years now. As soon as children’s television became deregulated in 1984, marketers have been treating children as fair game for the almighty dollar. This new group of consumers are being targeted with lines of toys, clothing and other products with sexual content, imagery and violence. Children and parents are falling for these marketing tactics hook, line and sinker. I’ll have more to say on the sexualization of children in an upcoming article.

So Sexy, So Soon: The Sexualization of Childhood in Commercial Culture
Men, What Your Clothes Say About You

Posted in Children, Family, Friendship, Parenting, Relationships, Shopping, Teenagers, Women on April 23, 2008

Tags: Tags: inappropriate clothing styles, sexualizing children, too sexy too soon, what your clothes say about you, you are what you wear

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