Friday, March 04, 2011

Emma on modesty




I was listening in on a conversation from the backseat between the two girls.  They had the Ariel Barbie and Jenna asked why her tummy was showing.  We have been working to teach our girls about dressing modestly and I have wondered how to handle the competing world views.  As I scrambled in my brain to come up with an explanation they could understand and accept, Emma beat me to it with a much better explanation than I was preparing.  I was ready to dive into the fact that not everyone has the same standards that we do and the fact that the makers of the doll don't think or believe the same things we do etc etc.... 
Emma's explanation was perfect.  "She is a mermaid and lives in the water.  If she wore a long shirt in the water it would get very wet and heavy.  When she becomes a girl she covers her tummy."   I need to retrain my brain.  Perfect simplicity!

5 comments:

Katy B. said...

Love it! :)

Anna said...

That is so cute. Ariel has always been my favorite, so I've defended the movie on occasion, but I never had that good of an answer for modesty. Now I'll know what to tell my daughter if that ever comes up. Thanks for sharing!

Anony said...

Very cute! I don't have that problem with my boys, but I always think it's something important to teach my little guys about modesty anyway. Although they don't have nearly as much trouble covering up themselves, it's good to teach them to know how to respect women.

Flor said...

so cute! love this post.

visiting from MMB

amber said...

I love that. Modesty is an issue I think about often, trying to figure out good ways to teach my kids. Thanks for this post!