The Skinny on Skinny Jeans for Kids
My daughter looks a helluva lot better in her skinny jeans than I do in mine. But that still doesn’t make me super keen on her running around in something that has the words super skinny embroidered in them I don't really want to say: "Hey kid, throw on your super skinnies"; just as I wouldn’t want to say to a four-year old: “Hey, about your fat pants today?”
I have no problem with skinny jeans for kids but I’m not crazy about calling them skinny jeans – or even worse 'super skinny' jeans. The promotion of this adult style is in full swing, prompting New York Magazine to ask if skinny jeans are appropriate for kids.
Skinny jeans are very cute on kids, and as Katie from Motherbumper found out many of us who have purchased jeans for our preschoolers recently probably have some hiding in the drawer. It is not the issue of how they look, it is the message that goes along with them that makes me pause.
Maybe I am doing a typical mommy over-think. I get told that I am over-sensitive to these issues, that I worry too much about the social pressures on young girls.
And maybe I do; but then I think about how my friend told me that her 4-year old daughter’s belly stuck out too much and she was thinking about limiting her treats. Until I told her that all four-year olds’ bellies stick out because they don’t have very strong stomach muscles yet.
And just the other day someone was watching my daughter eat with gusto. The observer noted: “she loves her food, doesn’t she?” But behind the comment was the unsaid, you better watch that. No one has ever said that to my boys, in fact they get approval for eating a lot because it will encourage muscle growth, whereas in girls it only creates belly growth.
I can’t pretend that the words fat and skinny don’t get thrown around our house. I guess I’m just wondering if the manufacturers of kids’ clothes could erase it from their lexicon in order to appease a little mommy guilt.
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