They clearly weren't like my mother...

LZ Granderson, a CNN.com contributor, recently received a lot of press regarding his editorial entitled, "Parents, don't dress your girls like tramps." It was quite a hot topic. He got over 4300 comments posted as of today. If you haven't seen the op-ed, you can read it in its entirety at the following link:

Parents, don't dress your girls like tramps

The point of his article is that parents should dress their children, particularly girls, like -- well, little girls! They shouldn't be wearing push up bras, thong underwear, and low cut jeans. I completely agree.

My mother would never have let me out of the house wearing clothes like that. Heck, I'm pushing 50 and she still wouldn't let me out of the house wearing clothes like that. I distinctly remember when I was growing up desperately wanting a bikini to wear to the swimming pool. Nope...never got it. The only two piece swimming suit I had was what we called an apron swimsuit with bikini bottoms and a top that literally looked like a cooking apron. I suppose it wouldn't have really mattered if I had a bikini anyway because it was before the advent of SPF sunscreen and, with my redhair, I always wore a t-shirt over my swimsuit at the pool to ward off excruciating sunburns.

I also envied my friends who got to wear halter tops and tops with spaghetti straps. They were not in my wardrobe either. The "hot pants" craze of the '70s was lost on me too. My mother made me wear longer shorts even when they weren't cool to wear. Of course, I thought my mother was completely unreasonable and mean for not letting me wear what all the other kids were wearing.

I realize now, as an adult, that my mother was sensible and didn't want her red-haired, freckle-faced, larger than most girls her age daughter to wear clothing that (a) might promote skin cancer later in life and (b) would most definitely not have been flattering on my body. This sensibility remains with me today.

Thank you mom, for not allowing me to dress like a tramp despite a few years in my tween and teen years when I most certainly wanted to.