My husband is playing basketball on a men's league with a team through his employer. They play games every Saturday night at the local YMCA and we've sort of made a habit of going to McDonalds for dinner prior to the game. Tonight while I was waiting on our food at the counter, a teenage boy came in with what looked like a young teenage girl, a boy that looked about seven, and a little girl, probably three years old. The eldest boy had quite a mouth on him, with obscenities rolling quickly off his tongue. Thankfully, my kids were already seated with Dad, so they didn't learn any new vocabulary. When I got my food and sat down, I looked back to the counter, and saw that the kid was wearing the waist of his pants literally 2 inches above his knees. I saw entirely too much of his silver/gray striped boxers, and my mind started to wonder....
Did you catch this on the American Idol auditions???
Just curious....
I guess my question is this:
What is your initial impression when you see a guy wearing his pants too low??
I was at the mall with my daughters shortly after that song was on American Idol, and we got behind 2 guys whose pants were so low, they'd walked off more than just the hem. Lady M started singing. "Pants on the ground, pants on the ground...." in a quiet voice, and I quickly shushed her (simply for safety's sake). Thankfully the guys didn't hear what she was singing...
As much as I hate to be judgmental, it's part of our human nature. It is something that we do, then admonish ourselves for and try to change that initial reaction. And when I see a guy with his pants hanging off his hiney, the first thoughts that run through my mind is "trouble". It shouldn't, I know. But it's an automatic thing.
When I managed a CD/music store years ago, I found that well over half of the guys who came in with pants sagging were leaving with CDs stashed inside that convenient void that happens when you wear your pants that low. And of course, anyone who works in retail knows that thieves come in many packages, but sometimes it's almost as though they've chosen a uniform to say, "Hey, look at me, I intend to do no good here."
Maybe since I don't have a teenage son right now, I can't understand it. Is it really just an expression of who they are?? Am I being too harsh?
All I know is this:
When I hear teenagers talking about how unfair life is, and how much they are targeted when they didn't do anything, I can't help but want to ask, "Then why do you dress like people who are commonly getting in trouble with the law?" To me, it just doesn't make sense.
When I was going through my own rebellious time, I didn't dress like a fashionista (as if I do now, HA!). I was one of the skater punk girls for a while, and I wore the wide legged pants (but never JNCOs because I thought they were hideous). I dressed like a skater punk girl. At one point in time, my hair was no longer than an inch and a half over my entire head, and I spiked it up. I was a punk, no doubt about it. And I was treated as one when I went shopping... security followed me around more, I definitely had a lot more "customer service", and sometimes it did make me mad. But even then, I knew it was my own choice in attire that made me appear suspicious. When I became a single mom and needed a "real" job, I knew I couldn't dress the same way if I intended on landing a decent job. I made some wardrobe changes and started letting my hair grow out more, and I ended up at a law firm. Would they have hired me if I came in wearing my US Navy dungarees that I took from my brother and a tiny tee that showed a navel ring? NO.
I understand that kids are being kids and trying to find themselves, or discover who they are, but when is enough enough? When does it stop? Sometimes I see men that have to be in at least their late 30s still wearing their pants down on the ground... and they're typically hanging out on street corners and in bad parts of town...
I'd really love to hear from moms of teenage boys about this one, or if you have a neighbor, friend, or nephew that chooses to wear his jeans "low, low, low, low".
What do you think??
I have a brother who used to wear his pants so low. All I can say is he was really rebellious when he was dressing like that. Thief? I don't know but he was really, really rebellious. I think the same thing too when I see kids dressing like that...TROUBLE.
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I can't decide what is worse, pants on the ground, or those colored skinny jeans. They're both so "disturbing." Some teens have no common sense. Being a teen myself, I think we have it easy. We have a lot more freedom then times before us. They give us the privilege of choosing our skirt lengths, and some girls take it to extremes. I wonder what they would do in the times when skirts had to go below your knees and had to be worn with tights. I find dress codes at schools to be too lenient. You can't tell kids not to be trouble makers, yet still allow them to dress like... fools! I agree with you completely! Happy Saturday. :)
ReplyDeleteAs a fellow former-punk chick, I can say that I also hung with a questionable crowd long ago (and I DID wear Jncos). I eventually got arrested (for, you guessed it, shoplifting) and that woke me up big time. But the way I was dressed unfortunately didn't improve. I continued to dress hideously (which, in retrospect, is more comical than anything else), but instead of concluding that we should judge people on how they dress, I think we have to realize that teenagers are experimenting; finding themselves. From that confused delinquent girl that I once was rose an artist who has won numerous scholarships and awards, a graduate (Summa cum Laude at that!) of the University of Pennsylvania, and the geologist you see today! That some adults continue to dress this way may reflect that they haven't found themselves, but it may also reflect that they have, and we should be careful about the assumptions we make- some of them are really decent people! Stopping by from SITS and definitely love thoughtful Thursdays :)
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