tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101405.post116568943020443740..comments2023-11-02T07:17:33.658-04:00Comments on The Last Amazon: Hat CrimesNaftalihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13554950952366823858noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101405.post-1165824629989172892006-12-11T03:10:00.000-05:002006-12-11T03:10:00.000-05:00Image is a powerful thing, and parents really are ...Image is a powerful thing, and parents really are powerful image makers.<BR/><BR/>There are so many things which we, as parents, cannot control that we must take especial care to give the right example when we can.Michaelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01314897574215489135noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101405.post-1165750973722231312006-12-10T06:42:00.000-05:002006-12-10T06:42:00.000-05:00Michael, I almost didn't post this. I wrote it to ...Michael, I almost didn't post this. I wrote it to get it off my chest. Its a tad catty in a way that I don't usually like to express myself publicly.<BR/><BR/>It sounds like you have a great wife who will also be a great example for your daughters. Nor do I think just because she is trying to keep a mitzvah she should go around looking like a dirge personified to be modest. <BR/><BR/>Don't get me wrong, I think that personal modesty in dress and person is a great value that has seriously been eroded in modern society to our determent as people. In a way, its like when women and men got rid of hats, suddenly the barriers to all other forms of modesty got thrown out the windows.<BR/><BR/>I have to confess I was not a particularly modest dresser until I had children, and it was the children who taught me the value of modesty. I had picked up my daughter one day from play school and she took me aside and asked me not to wear the outfit I had on to pick her up again. <BR/><BR/>It made her uncomfortable because the little boys all ooohed and ahhhed over what I wore. She was obviously nervous to say any critical to me, and I asked my sons if they felt the same way - they did. The thing was, I in nothing very outrageous, I was wearing a pair of low cuts jeans with rips all down the legs and a crop top that was button across the neck and long sleeves but came short of my mid-riff, my children told me it was like a rock star clothes.<BR/><BR/>From that day on, I retired a lot of my clothes and became much more modest in my appearance. I made a point of wearing very taylored simple clothes, skirts and dresses were on the long side and usually full, nothing low cut, and the jeans were thrown out. <BR/><BR/>Oddly enough, their father started to tell how great I looked and asked if I changed my hair. No one was whistling anymore on the street at me but that suited him and the children very well. I have kept it up ever since (though I hardly think I am appropriate whistle material anymore - I am middle aged.) <BR/><BR/>I think because I cultivated a very modest look early in their lives that I don't have a teenaged daughter who dresses like a Britney or a Paris - or even wants too. We have never clashed over which clothes are appropriate for her age.<BR/><BR/>Nor are my sons pre-occupied with how girls dress, though, they are a little put off by some of the outfits the girls wear. At my 13th year old son's graduation he ended up trying to explain to a girl who dressed very outlandishly (Paris Hilton style and who was hurt by some of the other boys comments) by telling her if she wanted to be taken seriously as a person, she had to start dressing like a serious person - I am not sure she felt it was the comfort words she was expecting but there is a degree of wisdom in them if she took them to heart.K. Shoshanahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12533598840074182415noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101405.post-1165723070404036872006-12-09T22:57:00.000-05:002006-12-09T22:57:00.000-05:00Wow, you are a lot like me wife. She got into hat...Wow, you are a lot like me wife. She got into hats for religious reasonts (<I>tzniut</I>, and the Jewish custom of married women covering the hair), but rather than just cover up, she spends a lot of time working to look very pretty within the limits. It's great.Michaelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01314897574215489135noreply@blogger.com