Teens and Tiny Dresses!

[AmICrazyorWhat2]

DD (13, nearly 14) has bought a dress for an upcoming school dance and I just don't know how to react to it. It's red, short and tight and she loves it. She's a curvy girl and she looks like a glamour model in it, all big boobs, legs and long hair. DH was when he saw her in it and I've tried to suggest that she wears some sort of wrap or jacket over the top to tone it down. But, I don't know anything about fashion apparently!

Little dresses for teens are the norm around here and DD is already self-conscious about her figure, she worries that she's not skinny like some girls her age. So do I let it go? She'll be fine at this school event, but outside school, she'd definitely get attention in this outfit because she looks SO much older than 13.

Can/should middle-aged Mum's give fashion advice or should we just let them decide for themselves?

No responses. Clearly everyone thinks I'm mad/daft/weird- all three!

According to my slightly more grown up 17 year DD that's what young teens like to wear.

If you're dropping her off and picking her up again i would probably let it go for this school event if others are wearing similar dresses. Or is it a mixed age group event. There's some relationships at my DS's school between 16/17 yo boys and 13/14 yo girls which i'd be uncomfortable with.

We went to a friend's daughters 18th the other week with a lot of other families that we know.

All of the younger teen girls there were in short, tight, low cut dresses. It seems to be the fashion.

That's just what they all wear - and sorry but I doubt that a middle-aged mother's fashion advice is going to be welcome.

I've tried to suggest that she wears some sort of wrap or jacket over the top to tone it down Nope she isn't going to take this advice ! Sorry but you'll have to accept that this is the outfit she is going to wear, and that's that.

The quickest way to put a teen off wanting to wear something is to say it’s amazing and you’re going to get something similar for you to wear so you can match next time you go out....

In all seriousness, you just have to let it go. Dd aged 16 wears some things that make me go but I’m sure I did the same to my mum. Circle of life and all that.

She might wear a wrap but it won’t stay on.

I wouldn’t worry too much as it’s a contained school dance. All the girls will be dressed the same.

My DD is 14. I let her wear what she wants because, as yet, the parties she goes to are very much girls only. Because it’s the norm for the girls, I don’t worry about boys their age.

What I do worry about is going out in public. I have no doubt she will be leered at. The conversations are very much about yes, she should be able to wear what she likes, but the world doesn’t work like that and she needs to have a good level of emotional maturity to be able to deal with it.

It’s all so thoroughly depressing.

I don't try to give fashion advice - as you say, that's never going to end well. But I do sometimes give personal safety advice that's about whether their proposed outfit is right for the context. So DD can wear a skimpy dried dress and try to walk in high heals at a party, but she's to have a change of clothes to cycle home in. DSD can wear a bra top to the beach, but not when walking around the streets in Turkey. They need to learn what signals they're giving out from the clothes they wear. But I'd let your DD wear the tiny dress to the school party as she'll be safe there and with her own age group.