Decency in Dressing and Dancing with Decorum

Decency in Dressing and Dancing with Decorum

Recently, a friend sent me a video on Whatapps, as I watched this video showing a boy and a girl not less than 10 years of age, dancing in a seductive way and their clothing were unacceptable I became sad. I guess this video must have gone viral. The sad thing about this video, is that adults stood by the side and were watching these children dance, while applauding them. Very sad indeed! I shook my head and let out a heavy sign of depressive mood. I wondered what our world had become, where did we go wrong? What have we done to this generation that our clothing, utterances, dancing and every spheres of our life has to be marked with indecency and immorality, lacing it with sexuality. I wept. I wept because I felt that our children have been led astray by us – parents. I wept because good is now bad and bad is now good. A society wrapped up in a confused and abject state.

When you look around our children, especially the girls, they are dressed in bum shorts, halter necks, cut off jeans, etc. Children’s parties these days seem to have a general dress code that says come in scanty clothing which is the ultimate swag now. One would easily have termed the party as a night club for children. A pitiable state of confusion I must say.

So the question is, why are we sexualizing our children ? Why does your 4, 6 or 9 year old girl have to look like a chick? Why does she have to be hot or sexy?

Should your 8 year old son go around with a comb in his hair and his pants sagged almost to his ankles? If your child wears bum shorts out of the house at age 3, why should she be expected to wear longer ones at 15? If she wears 2 rings and 12 bangles at 6, why won’t she pierce a second ear hole at 17 and her bellybutton at 19? Why won’t your son pierce his own ear at 15? Are you setting your children up to be immodest and indecent? What trend are you starting them on?

That all these are fashionable or trendy does not mean it is right. Some parents dress their children like this to church. Church! What are you teaching the child? What happened to children wearing dresses to church?

Children can look very nice and decent, they can be well covered and still look good. In this age, when children are being abused, is it wise to make your child an object of anyone’s sexual attention?

When I hear some children belt out sexually explicit lyrics, I ask myself how they became exposed to these songs! As a parent, you can’t play the CD of such songs and not expect your children to pick them up; the same goes for watching Mtv Base, Channel O, etc with your children.

Studies have shown that children exposed to a high level of sexually explicit information tend to become sexually active early. Is that your goal as a parent? You will need to avoid listening to such music where your children are. Better still don’t listen to them at all. What is not good for a child’s soul is not good for an adult soul as well. Most of those lyrics demean women and teach your daughter that she is just a sex toy and her body is for pleasure and for squeezing. It teaches the boys that money is everything and women are things to be used to satisfy their primal urges. These music introduces them to a degrading pop culture. Our children have their lives ahead of them, let’s set them on the right path by teaching them to dress decently and sing nice or age-appropriate songs.”

“Teach your sons that intelligence and confidence is the ultimate SWAGGER. There is nothing attractive about a man with low standards, low trousers and low IQ.

Teach your daughters that having confidence and intelligence is the ultimate SWAGGER. There is nothing classy about a woman with low standards, low cleavage and low self esteem.” – Michael Baisden

During a private secondary school prom night here in Lagos, one of the awards given to their students was Best Body Award. My question is, whose body is it, a body created by her or by her Creator? Is it an achievement that should be lauded? Is it what they go to school to do now? Compete on having the best body? Her mates are bagging academic or leadership awards, she is going home with best body award that will never have any relevance whatsoever to her Curriculum Vitae. As if she worked hard for God to bestow the best body on her. Hard work in achieving academic should be rewarded….. Not vanity. The height of vanity indeed!

Is it possible that some parents are victims themselves or is it that they don’t know any better?….

Being a Parent involves sacrifice. A sacrifice that entails being there for them, making out time to teach, educate and inform them about what is right and what is wrong. Let them know the harder right than the easier wrong, for this is a path to sanctity. There is no short cut.

Let our children be children.

Let us train our children in the way that they should go and when they are old, they would not depart from it.

This is Chinelo Ujubuonu saying Ozuzuamaka – Good upbringing is Golden.