Did You Like Or Dislike The Way Your Parents Dressed You As A Child?
By Rozie37
@Rozie37 (15499)
Turkmenistan
August 7, 2007 2:13am CST
My mother was the sweetest woman in the world and I loved her dearly, but she was a certified fashion misfit. Now, one thing that she got right most of the time is that we were matching, but we were the definition of square(L7 to the max).
First of all we had to wear dresses with tennis shoes because my mother did not believe that women should wear pants. Then we had to be covered from our neck to our knees. Or truth be told, below the knee. We had to wear bloomers under our dresses in the 70's no doubt. Who wore bloomers in the 70's besides us and people's grandmother's.
Besides that, she had this mushroom style of braiding our hair. No rubber bands at the top. That would bring your hair out. Okay, I could appreciate that. Then the shoes, Lord have mercy, the shoes. Brown looking loafers with a buckle on the side.
The way my mom dressed us, you would think that we were being punished for something. We never owned anything that was in style. I give her credit for being a caring and sensible woman, our clothes were meant as a shield from the elements and every eye in the world. A blind man could see more than we were showing.
So how did you look? Was your mother a fashion queen or did it look like the closet had threw up on you? Come on fess up, I want, hehehe, laugh at you.
7 people like this
18 responses
@Flight84 (3048)
• United States
7 Aug 07
LOL...I had some pretty lame clothes too. I grew up in the 80s...so I don't think I need to say too much. I don't knock the 80s because I love that decade, but I made some severe fashion no-nos. My mom would mostly let me pick out my own clothes, so I don't really have her to blame.:P I wore the bleached jeans, always rocking the side-ponytail, light-up shoes, I had the habit of wearing several pairs of neon socks, pushed down at different layers so you could see all the colors. Oh yeah! Slap bracelets. My arm would be covered! Who am I kidding...I'm a sucker for the 80s! I would probably still wear some of that stuff!!!:P
@Rozie37 (15499)
• Turkmenistan
7 Aug 07
I was just going to say, that sounded real cute. I was still growing up in the eighties. In fact, those were my teenage years. I loved those styles. I got to pick my own clothes in the eighties.
I remember one style that I loved, but it made me late for school every morning. Do you remember when it was popular for the girls to wear ties. I would stand in front of the mirror for the longest trying to tie that thing right.
Sometimes, I got it right, and sometime, I had to get one of my friends to put it on when I got to school. The eighties were so much for. I remember the neon colors. Your socks had to match your tops. I remember the t-shirts that said Choose One and the boots with the frills an them. The spiked belts and that tye dye shirts. Oh, to be a kid in the eighties again.
1 person likes this
@Flight84 (3048)
• United States
8 Aug 07
The 80s were the greatest! It takes you back doesn't it? I was kinda young, but I still remember those years vividly. Ties were popular a few years ago but I could never figure out how to tie them right.:P Thanks for the best response. I could talk 80s all day!
1 person likes this
@ladysurvivor (4746)
• Malaysia
8 Aug 07
Lol. My mother also had the same bad taste of dressing me up when I was a child. If you are not allowed to wear pants, I was the other way around. Everyday my mother made me wear pants to school. I never had even one opportunity to wear a skirt to school. I always look with envy eyes at my female friends who can wear pretty dresses to school where I, always dresses like a tomboy. I can still remember one day which was the Halloween day. We were supposed to dress up and I had chosed to be wonder woman on that day. I picked up a dress which means I was going to wear a skirt to school. However, on the morning of that supposed day, my mother told me to wear long pants underneath the skirt. Just imagine what I looked like. I was really embarrassed with the situation. Nobody had ever worn pants and skirt at the same time! Lol. Come on, laugh. It sure was funny!
@Rozie37 (15499)
• Turkmenistan
8 Aug 07
I am so sorry to hear that, it must have been pretty horrible. I think that your mother was just trying to protect you though.
We were not allowed to celebrate halloween at all. My mother was a Christian and very strict about pagen holidays. I remember one year, I made up my own costume and snuck it to school in a brown paper bag.
2 people like this
@CraftyCorner (5600)
• United States
8 Aug 07
When I was little, my mother had a habit I absolutely hated. She made me wear pants UNDER my dress with sneakers or hush-puppies. The pants would have been fine with a shirt. The dress would have been fine minus the pants, but the two together was vomitus maximus. Of course, all of it was pure polyester or corduroy. I was the only child to go to school wearing that fashion nightmare. It was a wonder the fashion police didn't carry me away in handcuffs or lead me away by my topknot pony tail.
@CraftyCorner (5600)
• United States
12 Aug 07
Nope! I didn't think about the condition of my clothes, I just played.
1 person likes this
@maddysmommy (16230)
• United States
11 Aug 07
My mum sewed most of our clothes. Used second hand materials and made anything she could think of from overalls that look like clown suits, skirts below the knees and shirts. I remember wearing brown shoes with buckles too and bata bullets (sneakers of some sorts). Since we were twins my mum dressed us the same, but in different colors.
When we went to school we mostly wore uniform so I quite liked that, being dressed the same as everyone else and not being teased for having home made clothes LOL Just as well I wasn't into fashion back then and still aren't really. I buy for comfort mostly.
@maddysmommy (16230)
• United States
14 Aug 07
haha would of been better if we were identical then we could fool our teachers LOL triplets aye? cool, that must of been hard on your sister at times LOL did she dress them all the same too? different styles but same colors? most definitely grew out of that when we hit college/high school! We have similar tastes though my twin and I however she has always been smaller than me.
1 person likes this
@Rozie37 (15499)
• Turkmenistan
14 Aug 07
They are fourteen and they stopped doing that years ago. I remember my sister telling me that they no longer wanted to dress alike. The funny thing is, when they were younger, they could not even stand to be separated from each other.
They were so use to doing everything together that my sister said they would act out when she took one of them out without the others. They would beg to go home to be with the others and cause a scene and embarrass her. It was weird hearing about that.
This is a picture of them at their Junior High graduation last year. The school told them to dress in business attire.
@Rozie37 (15499)
• Turkmenistan
12 Aug 07
OMG, I did not know that you were a twin. You never mentioned it. That is so cool and adorable. Most twins get tired of that pretty early. They want to break away and have their own identity. My sister has triplets(two girls and a boy) and when the girls were little, I could not tell one from the other.
They would get an attitude with me. So I learned to remember which one was wearing what that day. So that I could tell them apart. I also use to tease them a lot. I would ask, how come she looks just like you? They would giggle and shrug their shoulders and say, I don't know.
Now it is very easy to tell them apart. One weighs more than the other and they are opposite. The other day when I went to visit, one was whining about a broken finger nail and the other one was hopping around because she twisted her ankle playing basketball. It was very cute.
My mother would make our clothes sometimes too. Actually that was one of the many things that I admired about her. She was truly capable woman and mother. Sorry that you had to endure the teasing, I know your pain quite well.
1 person likes this
@raychill (6525)
• United States
7 Aug 07
I hate seeing old pictures of myself. I hate the clothes I had to wear. My mom insists (though I don't remember) that I always wanted to pick out my own clothes. I don't have the best fashion sense I admit...but I don't know some of that stuff was just horrid.
I think a lot of it was because they didn't have cute stuff out when I was a kid like they do these days. I see the clothes little girls have now and know I'd be a cute kid with great clothes but when I was a kid we had nothing! even when I know I did pick out my clothes I know they still had nothing good in stores. When I got into my pre-teen and teen years though I looked a heck of a lot better.
1 person likes this
@Rozie37 (15499)
• Turkmenistan
7 Aug 07
Oh my, sounds like you had some real issues with clothes when you were a child. I have a niece that was like that when she was four years old. You could not get away with putting just anything on her.
She would pout until you changed her clothes. She is 12 now and she has always had real nice fashion sense.
1 person likes this
@sid556 (30960)
• United States
7 Aug 07
My mother made me dress in puffy shirly temple dresses that came below the knee and little lacy anklet socks until I was 13 or so. She also put my hair in pincurls each nite so I would have the cutesy hair to go along with the outfits. I was only allowed to wear pants at home and never jeans or anything remotely in style. It was the early 70's when finally tired of the on-going battle between us and let me somewhat dress as I wanted. Still no jeans to school...nothing too revealing and absolutely no makeup! She recently looked at one of my year books and commented on how different I looked from all the other kids! unbeleiveable!
@Rozie37 (15499)
• Turkmenistan
8 Aug 07
Mothers have an idea of the way that they want their children to dress before the kids are even born. I don't have any children yet, but I know that I want my little girl to wear dresses with ruffles and be real dainty.
Parents do what they feel is best for us and what they like. I think some parents tend to forget that we have opinions of our own about how we want to look.
2 people like this
@Rozie37 (15499)
• Turkmenistan
13 Aug 07
This is so true. When my youngest niece was four years old, you could not just dress her in anything. I was staying with my sister and helping her with the kids.
I would bathe the four year old and get her dress in the morning. When she didn't like what she was wearing, she would pout until her mother came home and changed her clothes. It was weird to me because I had never known a child that young to be that way.
2 people like this
@sid556 (30960)
• United States
8 Aug 07
After they reach 4 or 5...parents really need to just back off. Because of my mom...I let my girls pretty much choose their own styles....lots of trial and error but by the time they reached highschool, I have to admit they had very good taste. And because I made such a small issue of it ...on the rare occassion that I felt I really had to speak up....they did listen.
1 person likes this
@rogue13xmen13 (14403)
• United States
7 Aug 07
Disliked. I had to wear dresses all the time, and I hate dresses.
@kohuether (85)
• United States
7 Aug 07
My mom would always have me get my hair cut - I never had long hair as a kid. Some of my classmates had long curly hair and I wanted that! Then when I hit puberty my hair went from straight to wavy so I stopped complaining about my hair and stubbornly let it grow. Lol.
I also wore this horrible dress during one of my picture days. It was green! We drove to my mom's friend's house to try it on. It was itchy, uncomfortable, and forever preserved in my class picture for that year. :)
1 person likes this
@cefaz_21 (2596)
• Philippines
7 Aug 07
My mom was not a fashion queen nor a fashion misfit but I commend her for dressing us up with nice dresses. If we weren't only poor, I can imagine She'll dress us with the most beautiful dress there is.
I remember she would buy me a spaghetti strap dress with laces..and I absolutely love it. The only thing I don't like is that she tends to buy the same dress for me and my sister who is 2 years older than me. She would buy red for her and yellow one for me. :)
I would love to share some pics with you but I don't have one here in my PC.
1 person likes this
@lizeri (533)
• Philippines
7 Aug 07
Well, there are no cute trends yet for kids before. I should say, my mom is practical yet she wanted to give out the best in me. But there was this funny scene when I was a kid wherein my mom forced me to wear shorts and shirt but then I insisted to wear dress. And what happened was that, when I ironed it, my chest got blistered. But it's ok, it has recovered already.
1 person likes this
@teapotmommommerced (10359)
• United States
9 Aug 07
I do not have any school photos of us, my mom dressed us in the cheepest clothes she could find. She dressed all three of us girls alike for our photos YUCK. I am a twin and had to dress like my twin most days now I have to dress like my older sister on picture days. Mom cut our hair in what she called was a pixie style which for those of you who do not know is a short hair cut. Mom's pixie cut is more like a pixie skelp, our hair was about 1/2 to 1 inch long all over our head. Mom did that every year. She said we could not fix our hair so she did not have the time. Now I feel she did it because she was to lazy to wash our hair or help us, or she did it because she was a bully and got her jollies in hurting us.
1 person likes this
@Rozie37 (15499)
• Turkmenistan
9 Aug 07
I am so sorry that this happened to you. I feel your pain. When I wastwelve years old. I lived with my aunt. We did not get along at all. One day she took me to the beauty shop. She did not tell me what they were going to do.
They cut all of my hair off. I was devastated. She said she did it because I was not taking care of my hair. My hair was thick and curly and beautiful. It looked so nice before she had it cut. I believe she did it just to be mean. People back then did not seem to realize that you could scar a child for life by doing mean things like that.
1 person likes this
@bluishrose (2289)
• Philippines
7 Aug 07
When i was a kid i hate the way my mom dressed me up with lots of ruffles and girly clothes. But when i turned into my 20's and look back geez i love the styles of dresses my mom dress me up with. I guess its about the timing hehe
1 person likes this
@faith210 (11224)
• Philippines
13 Aug 07
Hi Rozie37! Unfortunately, you can't laugh at me.LOL! My mom loves dressing me up and I like her taste in clothes...and I like the way she neatly combed my hair and put some headband or accessories that goes with my clothes. When our neighbors see my mother, they can't help but stare at her...she is very simple yet so elegant in her style. I just hope that style brushed up even a little in my fashion sense.LOL! Have a nice day and take care!
@bowtieguy (5915)
• United States
12 Aug 07
Now I find it to be tacky and dated, but I suppose at the time I was looking good and Im sure they did the best they could and I am not going to hate them for that.
1 person likes this
@fiyahcreation (2140)
• United States
8 Aug 07
she dressed me in the basic 80's and 90's fashion so I guess NO
1 person likes this
@altair_dip (807)
• India
8 Aug 07
oh i love the way my mom dressed me.. neat, clean and colourful..and she stitched our cloths herself..they were always the best..
@galoforce (263)
•
7 Aug 07
it shouldnt really matter as you wernt born then even if the clothes are imbarrasing. just hide the pictures when friends come round
1 person likes this
@Libra_Cupid (50)
• China
8 Aug 07
It's certain that the parents never treat you as a adult,though I don't like this way.Because we've grown up,we can understand what is right and what is wrong.But they always worry us,and I used to this.Parents are always the best in my life.
1 person likes this
