Hi there,
Ok, so you guys are probably going to laugh at this post, but I figured what do I have to loose! I need some help answering my child. My daughter, who is 4 going on 5, has developed an on going interrogation of modesty and the difference between boys and girls. We have discussed, due to her interest, the basics of modesty in girls, like don't pull your skirt over your head and you wear tights under your skirts so you don't show your underwear and close the door when you go to the bathroom, etc. And she gets all that, but what we can't get past is why boys/men don't have to wear shirts where girls do. I told her it would be nice/modest if boys/men wore shirts or tank tops but they don't have to like girls/women do. I have tried to explain it in many ways, like because God made boys and girls different and women have breasts where boys don't and even how it is just plain illegal for girls to not wear shirts where men don't have to. It SO doesn't help that it is summer and there is a plethora of boys/men out there jogging bare-chested on the road and swimming seemingly every where we go! Plus, even the art in our bible has bare-chested men. No answer thus far has been good enough for her. She says she wants to be a boy now too so she can run around bare-chested.... :-) So, am I missing a better way of explaining this? Is this just the nature of a 4 year old and I have to wait for her to mature and/or the winter?? Are there any good modesty books for children (that deal with the boy issue too)? Any help/advise would be greatly appreciated! :-)
If it is important in your family, then just keep working at it. She is close to the age where she will be worried about what other kids think of her, and if she takes her shirt off and they tease her it will probably be very effective making her want to keep it on.
). Max asked me a while back, "Mom, when girls get long hair, how come nobody calls them a hippy?" LOL Indeed!
