Woman Hides All Of Her Daughter's Clothes After She Refuses To Wear A Dress
Why should a child be forced into clothes they hate just to fit in with gender roles?
One mom on TikTok decided that her daughter’s refusal to wear feminine clothes warranted dramatic consequences, and posted a TikTok about the punishment she had planned.
The child had initially hidden all of her dresses and “any remotely girly” clothes so that she wouldn’t have to wear them, leading to arguments between her and her mother. When the mom found the hidden dresses, she decided that the appropriate response was to hide all of her daughter’s other clothes and force her to dress “like a girl” for a couple of weeks.
After a girl refused to wear dresses, her mom hid all of her other clothes and made a TikTok laughing about how upset her daughter was going to be.
A lot of parents struggle with the fact that they do not "own" their children. Children are their own individuals, and as they grow up, they’ll have their own preferences regarding how they want to look, what they want to wear, and their overall self-expression.
Kids aren’t dress-up dolls or miniature versions of their parents.
Of course, it’s a caregiver’s responsibility to make sure that their child is healthy and clothed, but that doesn’t mean forcing them to wear clothes that they aren’t comfortable in.
The two had gotten into a fight on Easter when the mom expected her daughter to wear a dress to school.
“All the girls were going to be wearing dresses — she hates dresses,” the mother said in her TikTok. “But you know what? There are certain times when you need to dress like a girl, and you need to dress decent, not like a homeless child.”
Upon finding the dresses her daughter had hidden, the mom planned to take all of the child’s other clothes out of her closet and hide them for a couple of weeks, forcing her daughter to only wear the clothes she hates.
“Don’t be dishonest. Don’t try and hide things from me. Don’t lie to me. There are consequences,” the mother said. Of course, the girl would have been forced to wear her dresses if she hadn’t hidden them, so really, she was being punished for disobedience.
When talking about her idea, the mom even laughed at the thought of how upset her daughter would be. “Honestly, I can’t wait to see her reaction,” she said. “She is going to lose it.”
At the end of her TikTok, she told viewers to “stay tuned” for more. Although the woman has since deleted her account after facing backlash from the video, this clearly indicated she was excited to post more updates about the situation.
Unsurprisingly, people across the internet raised objections to the mom’s TikTok and came to the defense of her child.
Even though the video was deleted, it’s been re-uploaded to multiple platforms where countless people have shared their thoughts on it.
Commenters called the mom “abusive” and “sadistic” for laughing at the idea of how upset her child would be. Others pointed out that there’s no one acceptable way to dress “like a girl,” and instead of punishing her daughter for refusing to wear her dresses, the mother could have gone shopping with her to find formal clothes that she felt comfortable in.
“Being a girl apparently means... sacrificing comfort for your appearance,” one Twitter user said. “Imagine her just having body issues and comfy clothes are the only way she can feel comfortable in her body,” said a TikTok comment.
Photo: Twitter
Since the woman who originally posted the video has deleted her account, she thankfully wasn’t able to post any updates of her child’s reaction to her plan. Hopefully, the backlash from the video prompted this mother to think twice about her treatment of her daughter.
Jessica Bracken is a writer living in Davis, California. She covers entertainment and news for YourTango.