Are Your Tween’s Role Models Too Skanky?

Tweens are at a very impressionable age, and thus, who their role models are can really impact how they act and live. The following is a look at how you can determine if your tween’s role models are too skanky?

1. What are your tweens learning from their role models? Skanky is more than a way of dressing, it is also a way of acting. Does your tween’s role model act appropriately and according to how you would want them to act? Are their interactions with other people appropriate? Are they showing respect for adults? Evaluate what your tween is seeing their role models do and ask yourself: Would I want my child behaving in that manner?

2. How do your tween’s role models dress? This is an important question because a lot of being skanky has to do with how you dress. If you wear clothes that are revealing or low cut, tight, or that say things inappropriate, you often act accordingly. So, evaluate how your tween’s role models are dressing. Then ask yourself this question: Would you want your child wearing those same outfits?
Part of dressing skanky means wearing clothes that are not age appropriate. Are they dressing too old for their age? Are they trying to look more grown up than they are?

3. Are your tween’s role models sexualizing themselves young? This is a common problem in media. You see popular artists and television stars that start out so innocent on their shows, and then start dressing more revealing, and acting more scandalously. Pretty soon they are posing for magazines that no teen should be on the cover of, and have very public dating lives, etc. Do you want your child to see this and think it is okay, or that it is part of growing up? Do you want your child to feel like they have to have a boyfriend, or that to be mature they have to dress like a hooker? Evaluate your tween’s role models, and try to avoid the ones who send the wrong message to your child.

When evaluating if your tween’s role models are too skanky, you have to define what you think is appropriate for your tween. Do you want them French kissing? Do you want them wearing strapless dresses? Do you want them carrying condoms in their wallets? This may be extreme, but the fact is, many shows, and pop stars, and role models for tweens are skanky, and may make your child think that it is okay, normal, or natural to be that way as well. Ask yourself honestly each time you evaluate their role model, Would you want your child wearing what that particular role model wears on a regular basis? Would you want your child doing what that particular role model does on a regular basis?