How To Be A Better Parent

       Hold on to your seats folks! The Mommy is getting ready to

impart some real wisdom here....

I believe that you are doing your child a horrible disservice if you give them everything they want.
Radical, right?
(My mother is probably dancing a jig or laughing her ass off right now.)


      My children lack for nothing. Nothing real anyway. They could use some new shoes right about now but that's not relevant to this post. My children have a roof over their heads, clothing on their backs, food in their bellies and love in their hearts (when the demon relinquishes control, anyway). What more does any child need? Apparently, in my neck of the woods, designer clothes, dance lessons (insert whatever sport or activity is popular in your area), designer footwear and enough toys to fill several toy stores.
Well I'm here to tell you that none of it amounts to anything.

        I had the opportunity to talk to a few girlfriends the other day (and I'm going to quote and name them so there isn't any confusion* about whom I'm referring) and Sarah said that she has had real concerns about some of the girls in her daughter's class. She said that there is a group of girls that I'm going to call the "Princesses" (BTW thanks to Jenn for that term it was WAY better than the one Sarah was using) that already in the third grade, have developed their little clique. Her daughter isn't being excluded by this group, that's not what is worrying Sarah, it's that these girls are a little too...worldly for an 8 or 9 year-old. They dress too provocatively and play at being big girls.
Brace yourself for this one. One of the girls is wearing a padded push-up bra! Sarah actually asked Little Miss Underwire's mommy why she bought it for her daughter the the mommy replied, "because she wanted it."
      It doesn't stop there. My girlfriend Laura forwarded pictures of the outfit her first grade daughter was supposed to wear to a dance recital. It consisted of a pair of hot pants, a tube top and these black pleather tubes that went over her shoes to make them appear to be thigh-high leather boots. When she voiced her objections to the dance instructor she was told that she was the only parent complaining about the costumes and that if her daughter didn't wear the outfit she would not be allowed to participate in the recital. She finally caved and allowed her daughter to wear the costume, with a beige colored unitard under it, and attend the recital. She sent us all a photo of her daughter at the recital. All of the little girls were painted up and nearly naked, except her daughter. They looked like hookers, and not Heidi Fleiss hookers, Hugh Grant hookers.
       These are just two of the most dramatic scenarios we discussed that night. There were several more that I'm going to file away for later. Now I'm not even going to discuss the sexualization of our daughters I'll file that one away for later too. No, I'm going to tell all you parents out there to NUT UP! They are children; they don't know what is best for them--you are supposed to. And just because they want it doesn't mean they have to have it. You are their parents not their friend and their friends are stupid anyway.
 Peace out!

*I received a lot of PMs and emails from SEVERAL Facebook "friends" who were very concerned/upset with me about the Valet post I did this week. Many were concerned that I was referring to them personally in my post--which frankly wasn't the case. But those messages did spawn a tongue-in-cheek response for my "Songs That Make Us Sing" post for Saturday. (I certainly hope everyone will take it as the joke that it is....)