Did your parents physical appearance and dress ever embarrass or make you proud when you were a kid

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My father, God bless him, moved my sister into her freshman dorm wearing bib overalls, white t-shirt and a rainbow bandana around his forehead. Mind you he's also 300+ pounds. Not to mention he insisted on carrying in her futon by balancing it on his head. No hands. He also would show up to my campus in the same outfit with the same behavior. Mortifying!!!

I love your father. I think it's great to teach your kids to be comfortable with who you are.

Not sure a futon makes such a great hat, though.

[Anonymous]

My mom is and was always stunningly beautiful to me even when she had extra pounds. She always did a manicure, has her hair coiffed and is quite silver glamorous at 79. My Dad was another story altogether--he was a very powerful, successful lawyer but when not at the office, walked around like schlub on his way to do yardwork, except not cool yardwork clothes, more like homeless man clothes. It was kind of a crazy thing. He got better about it as he got older and as you can see, I'm still a bitch-ass of a daughter as he's been dead 15 years and I'm even mentioning this.

Sorry dad you were awesome otherwise.

[Anonymous]

My mom had me when she was 22, and my dad was 24. Well dressed all the time, still. They have always been incredibly fit, they do bikram together several times a week and run together every morning. My dad is either in a suit or Levi's and my mom should literally be a Gap jeans model because I don't look as good as she does in them. They are both very classic, not super fashionable but they adapt what is trendy to their own timeless style. I totally copy my mom's look. Jeans, Gucci ballet flats, white t-shirt, Kelly bag (with my own twist).

I was very proud of them growing up and I still am, they are such a cute, ridiculously in love couple.

[Anonymous]

My father was way before his time, or else reality TV is way behind. My dad is a guido, an Italian American Jersey guy. He is hairy like a rug (front and back) and mows the lawn and hand washes the cars while naked from the waist up. Well, except for the gold cross on the gold chain bouncing around on his chest hair.

Sometimes, and I promise I am not making this up, he would lay out and get a tan in the front yard. Actually the driveway. Wearing a grey Speedo.

This was in the Midwest in the 70s.

[Anonymous]

Not embarrassed of dad so much, but mom wore dorky Sears polyester pants and stuff like that. They were foreigners who spoke with accents, so I was really embarrassed about that, and our family name was eastern european and not Jones, Smith, or like everyone else who had WASP names.

[Anonymous]

I went to college at the University of Michigan, where football on Saturday afternoons is a huge tradition. There was a golf course next to the stadium where families could tailgate and on many Saturdays, my or one of my friends' families would be there, and we'd join them to eat before the game. Picnics could be pretty fancy-- china not paper plates.

I remember my dad showing up one really cold Saturday late in the season wearing an old Skidoo snowmobile suit. I was mortified, as the rest of us were in our pea coats and prep-wear. He insisted he would be the most comfortable person at the game. I'm sure he was! Looking back, I'm proud of that. He's never worried about other people's judgements, unlike my mom who can be paralyzed by them.

I try to be more like my dad, but I'm probably more like my mom.

[Anonymous]

I was always proud that I had such a pretty mother. The other kids in Catholic school would compliment me on how pretty she was.

Now she's a white haired, back country, live stock raising, liberal activist, buddist hippie. She's facebooked all my friends. NOW she embarrasses the crap out of me But I still love her.

[Anonymous]

I wonder how boys feel about their parents...or is it mostly girls who are so aware of how their parents look?

[Anonymous]

My dad was a high ranking fed and always wore a suit to work. I always thought he looked handsome.

My mom was a Kindergarten teacher and wore teddy bear sweaters and macaroni necklaces. Yikes! Now I teach K and understand why she wanted and needed to be comfortable, and have her "kids" be into what she was wearing. I still don't and won't wear a teddy bear sweater, however.

[Anonymous]

My mother dressed in a classic style, not too trendy. I liked that she dressed well and wasn't trying to be like a teenager.

[Anonymous]

Horribly so. She would drive me to school with bed head hair (shortish hair all rat nesty in the back, sticking out a few inches) and she didn't wash her face/remove makeup before bed, so she had mascara raccoon eyes in the morning.

[Anonymous]

I don't remember having an opinion either way about my mother's dress as a child, but borrowed many a homemade hippie dress for Halloween.
It was important to my mother that we kids had new school clothes, proper dress for holidays, etc. I remember thinking that we didn't belong in Nordstrom shopping for my prom dress, but that didn't phase my mother. She bought me a beautiful dress.
Now as a mother of a toddler, I can understand why my mother used to tell me I was better dressed than she was. (All of my money goes to DD's wardrobe!)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't remember having an opinion either way about my mother's dress as a child, but borrowed many a homemade hippie dress for Halloween.
It was important to my mother that we kids had new school clothes, proper dress for holidays, etc. I remember thinking that we didn't belong in Nordstrom shopping for my prom dress, but that didn't phase my mother. She bought me a beautiful dress.
Now as a mother of a toddler, I can understand why my mother used to tell me I was better dressed than she was. (All of my money goes to DD's wardrobe!)

I hope this is a joke.

[Anonymous]

For the most part, my parents didn't embarrass me in public, except when my dad would make us hold hands to pray before restaurant meals. That said, my dad had (and probably still has) this garish yellow sweatsuit that he'd wear. Usually just for kicking around the house but once in awhile he would leave the house wearing it... oh, the mortification. (he's a large guy, but normally dresses very well.) I'm 38 and still mortified by it. All the kids were/are embarrassed by it. On the bright side, it gave us plenty of bonding moments over who could come up with the greatest joke about it. "You killed Big Bird!" and "Do you know how many bananas had to die to make that outfit?" were two I remember.

These days he occasionally mixes things I wouldn't. Like a tweed blazer with a patterned dress shirt in totally uncoordinating colors. But I figure he's 64, he's probably earned the right to be a little eccentric in his dress.

[Anonymous]

Yes - my mom was a typical 1980s/90s "housewife" (she used that term so not offending her) and liked to be comfortable. She has always been in a healthy weight range but her hair is curly and crazy and she never looked put together. Some of my friends' moms were way more put together, hair, dress, make up.

She would always say "I don't care - I'm healthy and that is what matters!" Good lesson for me to learn.

I definitely dress for comfort too. And when I pick up my daughter at daycare I'm in nice work clothes and sneakers. I'm sure someday I'll mortify her. It's character-building. Otherwise I take care of myself, am fit and healthy, and do wear makeup and try to fix my hair. But I dress comfortably and love my sneakers. She'll get over it, just like me.