"Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it." - Proverbs 22:6
We use a saying in our house: "Modest is hottest". My 4-year-old daughter knows it well. So well, in fact, that when my 2-year-old son runs off in the middle of me getting him dressed(or takes his diaper off, much to my dismay!), she is quick to tell him to put some clothes on so he can be "Modest is hottest"!
As far as my daughter knows, dressing modestly means putting shorts on under dresses so nobody sees her panties. She knows that people shouldn't see her panties and is quick to correct herself if I tell her to cover up. My son has no idea why I dress him the way I do. He's 2, a boy, and is too busy trying to play to care what I put him in.
I'm sure by now you've noticed that I include my son in the modesty conversation. I do so for two reasons
- Boys should be covered too. Listen, I realize that my son is 2 and nobody is looking at his chest. But, we have to teach our children things at a young age certain things. You can't watch TV at all recently without being bombarded with ads for Magic Mike and more sexualized images of men. It's important to teach our young men that there are better ways to get attention from people.
- This one goes for girls too. We have to not only teach our young women not to sexualized themselves, but we have to teach our young men not to look at women like they're pieces of meat. Of course, this can easily be switched around for girls and boys.
In our house, we keep ourselves covered and we know that it's important to see people for the person they are, not the clothes(or lack there of..)they wear. When they're old enough, we will sit them down and explain in an age appropriate, gender specific way why it's so important to dress modestly. We want our children to know and understand why, from a religious aspect, why we believe we should dress modestly.
