Halloween Costumes: Cute, Scary or Sexy?

Your daughter is so excited for Halloween! She is 7 years old and can’t wait to go to the Halloween store to pick out her costume. You are envisioning a clown, a ghost, maybe a princess or a cat. You are imagining how cute your little girl will look a dressed up, walking down the street eager to fill her plastic pumpkin with candy! Then reality strikes and your daughter shows you the costumes she really wants – a super-sexy witch or a lady vampire with thigh high boots! Yikes! Now what?
I just Googled “Halloween Costumes Girl” and one of the first sites I found offered me a search option for “Sexy” under the “Girls Costumes” category. That did not make me smile but I also didn’t think that the costumes listed there were all that sexy. There are plenty of girly costumes that are age appropriate for young girls but parents need to help the girl make good decisions.
According to Wikipedia, Halloween is “dedicated to remembering the dead, including saints, martyrs and all the faithful departed believers.” How we got to playboy bunnies and sexy nurses remains a mystery!
So here are some tips for costume shopping with your little ones:
1. Look online first so you can have some discussion away from the crowds in the busy store aisle.
2. If your child wants a costume that is clearly too old for her or too provocative, explain to her that while Halloween is a time to dress up and to pretend to be a character, there are costumes that are okay and others that need to wait until she is older.
3. If she wants to dress like her favorite singer or actress, remind her that her idol is an adult and she, your daughter, is still a child. Ask her if she can pick one or two aspects of her role model’s look that she wants to dress as but skip the shortness of the skirt or the low-cut-ness of the top. Or maybe insist that her middle be covered.
4. Try to focus more on accessories such as a cool wig or jewelry or even how you can do her make-up. Spend more time on looking girly and pretty and less time on looking sexy.
5. Talk to her about looking cute or scary versus sexy this year.
Give us a call if you need some help navigating this with your daughter.