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OP, I get what you're saying. As I teacher, I cringe when I see children wearing unkempt and dirty clothes. Mom usually has on something nice with hair and nails done. Same mom, with the expensive manicure, will tell me she can't afford cheap books or paper and crayons (which can be bought at the dollar store) to stimulate her child's mind at home. Just as I've had parents pull up in pretty new cars and tell me "If X isn't FREE I don't want my child participating!". I've also had parents tell me, when I was substitute and making bare bones money, "We can't afford it. Why don't you buy the supplies?". That to me is a tacky parent.
A classy parent is one who provides for their child to have a good future.
A tacky parent is one who has money for themselves and not for their children.
Or the kid could not care. My son WILL NOT wear any clothes that I may want to buy him. Take a shower? Yes, every night, only if I push him and remind him three times. Brush his hair? "Mom, leave me alone! I am fine!".
I pick my battles. If my son is fine with the way he looks, and is happy that is what counts.
My daughter is the complete opposite. Every day she does her hair a different way, likes certain clothes, and truly cares about how she looks.
None of the things on your list are within the control of the child, nor will they guarantee how they will turn out as adults.
Your version of classy is my version of snobby, which is a more egregious mistake than buying light up shoes. My grandson owns a cashmere double breasted overcoat, at the age of 15 months. I'm sure he would fall into your classy category, but dang, he adores his light up Elmo sneakers.
Yup, to me, tacky is looking at another family and labeling them as such.
Aw, come on. I know what he's getting at. I have a couple of things I consider signs of tacky parenting.
*Coke or Kool-Aid in a baby bottle
*3+year-olds walking around with pacifiers
*toddlers who are allowed to stand up in shopping carts
*kids who constantly jump on and pull on their parents while the parents are talking to another adult
We can't get off our high horses for even a minute??
Classy:
Neatly mowed lawn
Weeded garden
Cars maintained
House vacuumed, dusted, cleaned on regular basis
Shirts pressed
Less stuff but nicer quality stuff
Simple quality toys
If only it were that easy. I bet Brittany Spears does all this and we all know she's the embodiment of class.
Class, to me, is a code of conduct. Esthetics is just esthetics. It only presents the image of having class, but really, IMO, it's how you live your life that really determines whether or not you have class. Of course, you want to make sure they pay attention to esthetics (brushing their teeth, hair, taking care of stuff) but that's just grooming, basic living skills. Then there's the "don't advertise unless you have something to sell" school of thought. Making sure your daughters don't leave the house with their butt cheeks hanging out... but I digress...
Class is how you are, how you behave, how you speak, how you hold yourself, how you treat others, etc. I know rich people (and I mean, rich. Top 1% rich), whose adult children wouldn't know classy if it came up and punched them in the face. And these are kids who had the finest of everything - clothes, house, schooling.
So, to me, presentation of class is only 5% of what it really is. IMO.
Aw, come on. I know what he's getting at. I have a couple of things I consider signs of tacky parenting.
*Coke or Kool-Aid in a baby bottle
*3+year-olds walking around with pacifiers
*toddlers who are allowed to stand up in shopping carts
*kids who constantly jump on and pull on their parents while the parents are talking to another adult
We can't get off our high horses for even a minute??
Threads made just to mock others serve no purpose beyond making some feel superior. The world would be a much more agreeable place if they didn't happen, don't you agree?
Or the kid could not care. My son WILL NOT wear any clothes that I may want to buy him. Take a shower? Yes, every night, only if I push him and remind him three times. Brush his hair? "Mom, leave me alone! I am fine!".
I pick my battles. If my son is fine with the way he looks, and is happy that is what counts.
My daughter is the complete opposite. Every day she does her hair a different way, likes certain clothes, and truly cares about how she looks.
So......?
How old is your son? I would tell him "When you're older, you have to go to work. You can get fired for not looking neat and tidy and groomed". My mom told me all the time when I was young, that she can't wear whatever she wanted to work.
It's already been said, but classy children are nonjudgmental about what others do and say, especially as relates to material goods, and do not intentionally look for ways to make themselves feel better by denigrating others.
I think there is an old saying, if you have to ask about class, you don't have it. (Okay--maybe that was about grace and from Seinfeld, but it still applies).
OP--out here on my multiple acre property we have weeds. It just is. We could pollute the environment and the food of the animals and birds and the nearby waterway with loads of chemicals or we can live with weeds. We live with the weeds.
Since woman's shoes seem to be getting larger, I can now wear a 3 or 4 in girl's shoes. Next time I'm looking for a new pair, I am heading straight to the light-up section.
Threads made just to mock others serve no purpose beyond making some feel superior. The world would be a much more agreeable place if they didn't happen, don't you agree?
I'm not as agreeable as I used to be.
I'm willing to bet neither of us have never mocked ANYONE on CD.
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