Do you let your little girls dress in sleeveless shirts and dresses until they are older or do you insist that their shoulders are covered from the time they are born? What about crop tops that show bellies? Short shorts? How tight is too tight?
This modest thinking includes boys as well as girls. Should boys always wear shirts? I have been known to ask my own boys: "What if girls were to run around without their shirts on?" Oh how that makes them sqirm!
How do we teach our boys to respect girls and women? What tools do we employ to do these things? We cannot sit by and just expect them to absorb by osmosis a modest way of thinking. There must be conversation or the visual stimuli from the world will overwhelm them.
For any situation that may arise, we must actively engage them in conversations about the way people dress (and think and speak and act). It is a must! Do we teach them to look the other way? Do we teach them to hold their tongues? Do we help them practice what options they have if they are in an uncomfortable situation?
There's a nice article on JenMagazine that shares some thoughts about the shoulders. It's a good read for anyone with a pre-teen or teenage daughter. You will have to scroll down to find it: The Cold Shoulder: To See or Not to See? (For anyone who is not LDS and is not familiar with the garments that members of the Church wear, the article refers to the garment worn by adult members who have been through the temple, and the issue here can easily be understood by simply noting that garments have cap sleeves and that the only way to wear the garment appropriately is to cover it completely. Any questions? Just ask.)
Here's my daughter in a dress we made this spring. She covered her shoulders nicely with a sweater and looked just beautiful!
