Creating the Perfect Costume

All last week I promised my 13-year-old daughter I would take her shopping, costume shopping that is. usually we have created her costumes over the years from stuff at home. Frugal, smart, maybe, cheap yes! But this year she considers it her real last year to go trick or treating so she wanted and wants the perfect costume. She saved and budgeted for it. She dreamed it, and then when her school decided that it would be turning the school into a haunted doll house for Halloween she knew she just had to be a bat queen.She says she can hang out near the roof. I think her desire to be a bat might come from being born in Carlsbad, New Mexico where thousands of bats make a nightly flight. So bat queen shopping we went. First store we hit market themselves as the largest costume store in Canada..as we hunted for perfection my dear daughter started to get angry with what she saw. As she tried on costume after costume, the more frustrated she got. Can you see the issues she might be having? Everything was too short. Too sexy. My dear daughter said and I quote” Everything makes me look like a Halloween Hooker” Since when do we even have to sexualized costumes for tweens? and I even saw some for younger kids as well? Do you, do I really need to send my daughter out the door looking like a tramp? My dear daughter and I left store A and went to store B which was a brand new Halloween store that opened right near my daughter’s school. Again there were the Halloween hooker outfits as Rachel called them. At this store Rachel looked over to the boys costumes and said “Mom why is it that boys get decent costumes that can cover a body while us girls get garbage?” We went on to store C a major retail chain store that is both American and Canadian and again it was more of the same. My tween came home without a costume, and frustrated because she had this vision. So after our morning in High Park yesterday, we headed to Value Village on the suggestion of one of my twitter friends..Again we saw the Halloween Hooker outfits but we found other options as well especially in the used area. Finally she found her perfect black dress..she then found bat wings. She now has purple and black tights, a black dress, wings, a purple necklace and a crown..so finally after much searching we were able to make her costume dream a reality. But what is with the sexualization of our kids costumes? What do you think when you take your teen, tween or teen to get a costume these days, especially if you have a daughter. How are you able to get your daughter a costume that is decent? What have you had to do? If young teens are noticing the sexualization of the costumes shouldn’t we as parents be saying a bit more?     ...

All last week I promised my 13-year-old daughter I would take her shopping, costume shopping that is. usually we have created her costumes over the years from stuff at home. Frugal, smart, maybe, cheap yes! But this year she considers it her real last year to go trick or treating so she wanted and wants the perfect costume. She saved and budgeted for it. She dreamed it, and then when her school decided that it would be turning the school into a haunted doll house for Halloween she knew she just had to be a bat queen.She says she can hang out near the roof.

I think her desire to be a bat might come from being born in Carlsbad, New Mexico where thousands of bats make a nightly flight.

So bat queen shopping we went. First store we hit market themselves as the largest costume store in Canada..as we hunted for perfection my dear daughter started to get angry with what she saw. As she tried on costume after costume, the more frustrated she got.

Creating the Perfect Costume
Can you see the issues she might be having? Everything was too short. Too sexy. My dear daughter said and I quote” Everything makes me look like a Halloween Hooker”

Since when do we even have to sexualized costumes for tweens? and I even saw some for younger kids as well? Do you, do I really need to send my daughter out the door looking like a tramp?

My dear daughter and I left store A and went to store B which was a brand new Halloween store that opened right near my daughter’s school. Again there were the Halloween hooker outfits as Rachel called them. At this store Rachel looked over to the boys costumes and said “Mom why is it that boys get decent costumes that can cover a body while us girls get garbage?”

We went on to store C a major retail chain store that is both American and Canadian and again it was more of the same.

My tween came home without a costume, and frustrated because she had this vision.

So after our morning in High Park yesterday, we headed to Value Village on the suggestion of one of my twitter friends..Again we saw the Halloween Hooker outfits but we found other options as well especially in the used area. Finally she found her perfect black dress..she then found bat wings. She now has purple and black tights, a black dress, wings, a purple necklace and a crown..so finally after much searching we were able to make her costume dream a reality.

But what is with the sexualization of our kids costumes? What do you think when you take your teen, tween or teen to get a costume these days, especially if you have a daughter. How are you able to get your daughter a costume that is decent? What have you had to do?

If young teens are noticing the sexualization of the costumes shouldn’t we as parents be saying a bit more?

 

 

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Source: http://commoncentsmom.com/2011/10/creating-the-perfect-costume/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=creating-the-perfect-costume

NOTD: Del Sol Trick-or-Treat

PB Nutella; a cheap n’ simple treat!