Was anyone else mortified over the selection of costumes for pre-teen and teen girls? Costumes have gone from fun, cute and scary to short, sexy and skanky. What is up? People must be buying them or the retailers wouldn’t keep making them. Do girls need to show skin when they dress up? (and yes, I have even seen a bare midriff costume for a toddler).

I don’t remember any Halloween stores when I was growing up. (Am I dating myself with that statement?). We did the old fashioned digging through the closet to come up with costumes. If we were lucky, a parent or grandparent was good with a sewing machine. Halloween costumes and decor have become a billion dollar business. The two months that are utilized for anything Halloween are pretty good to anyone in that market. Corn Mazes, haunted houses and specialty stores make enough money for it to be worth them only being in business a couple of months out of the year, but I digress…..Again, what is up with some of these costumes?

I believe costumes do a good job of reflecting what the media teaches our girls. You have to be sexy to look good. Since when should a 12 year old believe she needs to look sexy?? I remember the first time I saw purple sequined thong underwear in the little girls department (they were a size 7). REALLY??? I won’t even begin to discuss the costumes for adult women, but kids learn by example. Kids today grow up so fast. Halloween is the one time a year that you can use your imagination and become anything (or anyone) that you want to be. Let’s take a look at what everyone around us is modeling to our children about this time of year and use it as a point of discussion, especially with the girls….It made my 12 year old daughter want to be an M & M……