To Avoid ‘Sexy’ Clothes For Your Tween, Shop Abroad

If you’ve found yourself doing double takes of eight-year-olds in sexually suggestive clothing, you’re not crazy. A study conducted by ScienceDaily confirms what you’ve suspected all along: about 30% of clothes for young girls is either “sexy” or “sexualizing.” Parents can’t even escape skimpy leopard print mini skirts and cleavage baring tops online as the researchers studied 15 popular, yet unnamed, websites for children’s clothing in the United States. So what other options are available to parents? According to many mothers I know, vacations abroad function as both family time and shopping time.

France and Germany offer a variety of alternatives to “shirts and dresses that were cut in such a way as to create the look of breasts, or highly decorated pants’ pockets that called attention to the buttocks,” to quote ScienceDaily. Although England and Ireland have adopted the word “tween,” their interpretation seems to differ. Shirts and blouses, backpacks and accessories aren’t predominantly emblazoned with sexually suggestive phrasing. According to one mother I know, it wasn’t difficult at all to pick through the racks and pluck out a couple of simple sundresses.

Granted, it’s far trek for just kiddie clothes. But if you’re sightseeing anyway, it might be worth to drop some extra euros on a blouse that doesn’t say, “I’m hot.”