Everyone is not cut out to give fashion advice, especially a certain father I know.
My daughter, Grace, had an interview at college for a resident assistant job. She had an outfit picked out, but was on the fence about the shoes. She did what she always does when trying to make a decision. She made a round of calls.
The first one was to her big sister. Paige told her to wear sandals. Next she called me. I was not available, so she called her father for his thoughts. He told her NOT to wear open-toed shoes. Split vote.
She and I finally connected when she sent me a picture of her outfit with the shoes via text. I sent back my approval. She went with the sandals. Later I called her and reminded her that she lives in California and she’s not going to a bank interview. Sandals were completely appropriate for that job interview.
Dads can be helpful in the clothing department when it comes to teen and pre-teen girls. After a day at the mall, my girls would come home with tight jeans and short, tight dresses. Of course, the first thing they would do is try on the clothes and I would let them know what I thought was inappropriate or tell them to return an item if I thought it was too revealing.
They would object and immediately show the outfit to their dad and ask him what he thought. He would say something like, “That’s a little short or that’s pretty tight. I don’t think you can sit down in that.” Then they would try sitting down.
This is the only time when revealing a little too much in the buttocks area is a good thing, because it would get them to realize that their dad was right (and their mom, too!) and they would return the clothes.
Is it daddy knows best? Maybe. Not wanting their dad to be ashamed of them? Maybe that, too. Whatever it was, it worked.
Tell your girls go to dad for all kinds of advice—about work, school and sometimes even friendships. But clothing and boys, those are topics for me. Moms, do you agree?
