“We want our children to grow up well-rounded individuals with a strong sense of self and a pleasant attitude. While numerous things influence their development, one frequently disregarded factor is the effect of clothes. Our children’s clothing choices can significantly impact their personality, self-esteem, confidence, and how others view them.”(1) Clothing choices can also influence mood, emotions, academic performance and professional development in the future. As muslims there are many considerations with regards to clothing; choosing sustainable, ethical clothing and avoiding ostentation- but here we see that there is a lot more to it.
Research shows that among school children “wearing certain items or brands of clothing particularly those associated with celebrity status or gang membership is accompanied by serious problems including peer competition and ostracism” (2), and violence. Hence uniforms are often adopted to encourage harmony and support good behaviour in schools. And certain items of clothing such as football scarves and gang colours are banned to help prevent problems. In fact one of the first pieces of advice given to encourage children to leave gangs is to ditch the gang clothes and discover their own identity.
As parents, we should take the initiative to make our children aware that their clothing choices can impact their thinking and to teach children to take responsibility for their own image, cultivating and displaying the correct image of self in order to succeed. It’s also important for us as adults to familiarise ourselves with what might represent gang clothes and colours in our locality and steer away from making choices that coincide with those identities.
Adults have an important role in purchasing children’s clothing and thereby help to define who babies and toddlers are before they can express their own preferences. And as children grow they want to copy the adult role models in their lives. There is a natural progression that begins to shape their identity as they mimic the adults around them and learn that their clothing is one way of asserting their identity. And as they grow older they will be more and more influenced by peers and will want to experiment to express their identity and personality. In the younger years we as adults have a role in directing these choices and ensuring they are appropriate but at the same time allowing our children to develop their own sense for clothing.
So perhaps we have to be more mindful of the clothing we wear and dress on our children.
- https://www.thelittlesttrunk.com/how-do-clothes-affect-your-kids-personality/
- https://www.jstor.org/stable/2967344