Parenting 101~Dress for Success? (clothes kids wear)

                          Why do I care what clothes my kids wear?

While on vacation in St. Kitts in the Caribbean, Michelle and I watched as children poured out of a school all wearing school uniforms.  We were impressed with how nice they looked and said it would be nice if our children had to wear school uniforms. 

As we talked about this we came up with the idea of setting a standard of clothing our children would wear when they went to school.  This turned out to be collared shirts with jeans or khaki pants but no T-shirts. Our sons were 6 and 7 years old at the time and didn’t put up to much of a fuss at first, but as they became teenagers the battle was on!  

Over time we caved a bit and agreed that Fridays could be t shirt day.  As they got older we heard all the arguments, especially “you can’t tell me what to wear”  to which my response would be, “I’m your dad, and yes, I can.”   

This is what we learned using the “Gilbert dress code”:

1.  It affected their behavior.  They had their moments and were not perfect (their mother still believes they were perfect), but our experience was, the rougher they dressed the rougher they were.

2.  People treat those that look nice, nice.   

3.  They stayed away from extreme styles.  Sure they followed the latest styles, but they understood there were limits and we never had to worry about inappropriate issues. 

4.  They dress nice as adults and 2 out of the 3 say they will have their children follow the same dress code.

By:Kurt &Michelle Gilbert SuperParents  

www.LiveWellMarket.com