tough one

A Mom Wonders If She Should Ban Her Teen From Wearing Clothes That She Finds Ugly

It’s a question of if parents should police their kids’ style.

by Katie Garrity
Updated: 
Originally Published: 
A mom wants to know if she's in the wrong for correcting her mother-in-law after saying her granddau...
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We should all feel flattered that Generation Z has pretty much blatantly copied our adorable fashion looks that we sported in the ‘90s and early ‘00s. I thought we looked cute, and now that style is back again — but not everyone is loving the Y2K look on today’s kids.

One mom's post on Reddit is going viral about her daughter's Y2K fashion choices, but honestly, how the outfit looks is only half the story, and, surprise, the bigger issue has to do with her mother-in-law.

The 38-year-old explained in her post that her 14-year-old is really into “Y2K” fashion right now.

"It's more Bratz dolls, less real early 2000s fashion," the mom explained.

“Last week, she went to a thrift store with her older sister and bought the ugliest tie-dye mini skirt imaginable. It is brownish and honestly looks like she had a poop accident, as one of the 'stains' is around her bum area.”

Despite hating the look of the skirt, the OP let her daughter wear it because she liked it.

When her daughter recently tried to wear the skirt around the OP's mother-in-law, she expressed that she wasn't a fan of the skirt for a very different reason. She yelled at her granddaughter that the skirt was “too short,” and she needed to change immediately.

“My daughter started protesting and asked me about it. I said that the length was fine, but I did not want her to go out in something that makes her look like she had an accident,” she said.

After her daughter went upstairs to change, the OP’s MIL chastises her for for being “inappropriate” with letting her daughter wear the skirt and accused her of undermining and “mocking” her by saying that the skirt length was fine but the look of the skirt was the real problem.

Her MIL also claimed that she was “showing [her daughter]” to be “shallow and buy into trends.”

The entire situation came to a head when her own husband wouldn’t back her up and sided with his mom.

“Honestly, I was not concerned until my husband came home, saying he agreed with his mother and he was not a fan of how I handled this. I am very confused. She is wearing normal girls' stuff, not scandalous. It is normal. But my husband said it is stupid that I draw the line at 'ugly,’” she concluded, asking if she was the a**hole in this scenario.

After some Reddit users came for her in regards to what she said to her daughter about the skirt, she wanted to clarify a few things.

“This is not about my daughter being upset. She is not upset with me. She looked at it and said that i was right and she had not noticed. This is about the validity of the statements of my MIL and Husband,” she wrote in an update on the post.

After clearing some things up, most Reddit users sided with the mom.

“NTA ... Granny needs to keep her mouth shut. Parenting your daughter is your job. If she has concerns like the length of a skirt she should speak to you not your daughter. Your husband also needs to learn to back you up,” one user wrote.

“It was honestly not that short. Like her shorts are shorter than the skirt,” the OP replied.

“NTA. Apparently you people forgot what it was like to be 14,” another commented.

One user casted most of the blame on the OP’s husband.

“This seems to be more about the husband than the skirt. He wasn't there. But he is telling you you are not allowed to disagree with his mother! If you just give your opinion to your daughter then let her decide whether or not to wear an item that's the better way to go imo. She would probably be ok to consider your opinion. But don't dictate to her if she disagrees. MIL can think what she wants she's not relevant,” they wrote.

“Yes! thank you that is my point. My daughter and I are completely fine. She said she just did not notice and did not want to wear it anymore,” the OP replied.

It seems pretty evident that this mom did the best she could with the situation she’d been given. She let her daughter wear the skirt, gave her honest opinion, and was well within her rights to correct her mother-in-law’s sexist and payed put opinion on her daughter’s skirt length.

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