Special birthday shout-out.........Fashion Faux Pas for kids

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO AVA-MIRRE!!!

So today marks a very sentimental point in my life – My baby girl turns 2. Wow! It felt just like yesterday when Ava-Mirre and I were trying to figure out each other for the first time. Today brings bitter-sweet feelings, in that, time has flown by so fast that I feel like I didn’t have enough time to enjoy her being a baby who completely was dependent on me for everything. On the other hand, I consider Ava-Mirre as a gifted child – in a good way though – because within the past 2 years, she has managed to go through all the milestones 3-4 months ahead of the average child. It’s been very

intriguing to see her develop so well and I can’t wait to see her blossom into a toddler, young girl, teenager and eventually a woman.
So as I sit here analyzing our journey that past two years, I can’t help but to drift off into deep thought and reminisce the sequence of events leading to this special day – finding out I was pregnant and experiencing pregnancy for the first time, the labor and child-birthing process and finally going through the daily activity of raising a baby & toddler. One thing I wish Ava-Mirre could grow out of – being a finicky and picky eater. It’s been a long ride but hopefully as she grows older she’ll be more willing to try more meals. I’ve been told that she’s just following her mom’s footsteps when it comes to eating. Well no baby, this is one thing I don’t want you to copy – at least not now…maybe starting from your teenager years. Lol!

So what’s my favorite milestone yet? – having full conversations with her. After Ava-Mirre turned 13 months, I started to get panicky about the fact that she wasn’t saying ‘mommy’ or for that matter, ‘daddy’ while you could identify her classmates beginning to embark on that journey pretty well. I read some books and I was informed that if by month 18, a child didn’t have a vocabulary of about 50 words; it could potentially be a sign of some speech impediment or language delay. Oh God, NO, I thought to myself. So every day I would try to encourage her to say some words and I was literally counting and writing down words that I would hear her say every now and then. Call me Crazy!!!! But after all that, I really had nothing to worry about because once again she started talking earlier than the average child and now it’s almost impossible for anyone to get her to hush for a second! But I love it!

Anywho, let’s go ahead and tread in some rather ‘interesting’ waters…….

The Scoop on Kids’ Fashion Faux Pas (Part 1)
- Written by Akua Abeasi & Nana Adwoa Abeasi

*Disclaimer – I am by no means a fashion expert (even though I aspire to be just that! Lol!) . This article piece is a result of a sample group of mothers and other women selected and asked to give their responses to the topic.

Motherhood is a blessing and sometimes involves on-the-job training – especially for new mothers who are trying to get the hang of this thing called motherhood. Despite the many self-help books, advice from family members and friends and other seasoned mothers – a true mother follows her instincts and will always do what’s best for her child! Nevertheless, that does not mean advice from the so-called experts will go ignored – a mother’s final decision is usually made up of 80% mummy intuition, 15% expert advice and 5% daddy’s input. (according to my calibrations, lol!). So there is definitely a useful need for expert advice every now and then – today we are going to explore the fashion dos and donts in children fashion. Yes, this is a very relative and subjective discussion, however I still like to exercise my 15% influence in mummy’s fashion decision for her kid’s wardrobe.

Mothers, with every item discussed, let’s keep one thing in mind about our kids, LET’S KEEP THEIR INNOCENCE!

CLOTHING

• The good thing is that there are so many colors in the rainbow, not to forget adding colors to other colors to get new colors, however the sad thing is that we sometimes get so narrow minded and boggled down on the idea of pink being for girls and blue being for boys that we miss out of other possible colors out there. Let us be open to other expressive colors and stay away from the routine, mundane obvious color choice of clothes. And yes, in most cases the clothing manufacturing companies are to blame by providing outfits drenched in our favorite two colors.
• Mummies and daughters do hold a very special bond that is quite obvious to the viewing public; however some mummies see the need to make this bond a little more evident by having baby and herself dress alike. This is always cute and refreshing, however it gets a bit scary and overboard when baby girls are dressed centuries older than they really are. Come on lets keep their innocence intact…I mean that is what being a kid is all about!
• Tight clothes never look appealing on anyone, so why would it look appealing on our kids? Yes, we all have our favorite outfits but when what’s supposed to be pants now look like long shorts or we see a little belly hanging from under a shirt, then we know its time to make a quick run to the mall, department store or wherever it is we get good deals on our kid’s clothes.

HAIR

• I believe they are still investigating the effects of the perming ingredients and process on adults so please lets stay away from introducing such chemicals to our kid’s hair …the jury is still out! Permed hair not appropriate for young girls …or boys for that fact.
• A child’s hair looks better neat and simple. Putting a million and one bows and ribbons in a child’s hair not only looks distracting to the viewing public but I cant even imagine how the child is feeling with all those ribbons crowding her cranial space.
• Neat is the key word here. If you don’t have time to redo your child’s plaits at least once a week (or every other week) then I would humbly ask you to cut her hair into a low cut . Month-old plaits/braids beg attention – the wrong kind of attention!

MAKE-UP
Ladies & Gentlemen, let’s just say no!!!

• In no shape or form do we want to start introducing the idea of beauty imperfections to our little ones, therefore I do not think it appropriate to teach them the magic of makeup…unless of course if they are attending a birthday party and the clown insists on face painting…even that is a far stretch!
• So one may ask my opinion on beauty pageants and modeling for kids…a big no no in my books! Please lets let our kids be kids and don’t live though them by forcing them to partake in activities that we wanted to but lost the chance to…yes I am talking to the wanna-be pageant queen mothers out there!

NAILS
Simple rule: keep short and clean.

ACCESSORIES - Jewelry
Adorning kids with too much jewelry. Not only is it a choking hazards but it’s also tacky.

Note that this will be an ongoing discussion. We will gladly accept other mothers’ opinions and ideas to add on to this discussion. So submit your suggestions by giving your comments and/or sending it by email to naabeasi@comcast.net