Should Kids Be Dressed Like Adults?

By Maria Martinez
Blog Content Contributor

This semester, I am taking a fashion history class. In this class, we are learning about how clothes have been changing over the years and how trends come and go over and over again.

Last week we were talking about how parents in the 17th century did not know how they were supposed to dress their children so they just replicated what they wore into smaller versions. This got me thinking about how right now, this trend is very popular with celebrity and blogger’s children such as North West or Alonso Mateo.

Honestly, I follow many “non-celebrity” Instagram moms who are copying this trend with their kids, and I usually like every picture they post. Little boys and girls look very cute dressed with what is “in” right now. But do kids like to be dressed fancy every day? I feel that the parents who are doing this to their kids are only taking away an important part of their childhood.

Children need to be messy, play outside in the mud or rain and just be comfortable to jump and dance around everywhere. There will be one day that they are going to dress as adults. Why speed up the process? Parents need to understand that even though these are their children, these kids are not their Mini-Me’s.

Children are wearing expensive brands such as Chanel, Gucci and Burberry and most of them do not even care about the fancy designer clothes and accessories they are wearing. This “trend” will only cause spoiled and materialistic children. Kids should not be caring about what brands they are they wearing. Instead, they should only care about having fun.

I am not saying that parents should not choose what their kids wear. It is obvious that they sometimes need to; our parents did it for us too. When we were young they decided, for the most part, what we were going to wear every day.

In my case, my mom used to dress my sister and I the same as we were growing up. We had many of the same dresses and outfits but in different colors. I am sure I am not the only one who had to go through this with their siblings, but there was a point when we did not want to look the same anymore.  

I think this is what is going to happen with today’s kids. At one point in time, they will rebel against their parents so that they can be able to wear whatever they want and like. Everyone needs to discover themselves and should not be told what to use just because others like how it looks on them. There is nothing wrong wearing stuff from Target and not from Neiman Marcus.

I would love to one day have my own kids to style them, but I would never dress them like mini versions of adult “fashionistas” every single day. I want my kids to have the liberty to be who they are and not limit them to do things because they are going to mess up the expensive stuff I buy for them.

When it is time for us to have kids, we should let them get creative with their fashion decisions. I know my parents gave me the liberty of choosing and I would always wear my pink cowboy boots to every place I went (which I do not regret.) I am thankful they did not buy me or dress me in expensive brands as a child. This would have only harmed me into feeling I deserve luxurious items because I got them since a very young age. I would definitely have not enjoyed my childhood as much as I did. I would have grown up too fast.

I hope this trend kind of stops with millennial’s children. It is understandable that parents in the 17th century dressed their children as small adults but we do not have to. We are smarter than that. Let’s teach our children that it is okay to be different from us. Let them have fashion disasters like we all did. Please let’s not buy them expensive things because they will not appreciate them. It is fine if our kids wear comfortable clothes instead of expensive clothes.

And mom… You might not choose our outfits anymore, but my sister and I like to dress the same again.