“Mammas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys” Or Let Them Dress Inappropriately In A Nice Restaurant

First of all, there’s nothing wrong with Cowboys, I rather just fancied the phrase, which is the title of a older and popular country music song performed by Willie Nelson & Waylon Jennings (2007), written by Ed & Patsy Bryce. The other night we were out at a fancy restaurant. Everyone in the restaurant was dressed up; women were wearing dresses, skirts, and nice slacks and men were wearing either collared shirts, shirts with jackets, or shirts & ties. Although it was not over the top in price, it was not cheap either. We’re enjoying our salad when I looked over to the front of me and to the right and I saw a table of what looked like parents or grand parents, nicely dressed with a young boy wearing workout shorts and a football/soccer jersey.  The approximate age of the child was 10 to 12 years old. I don’t blame the child if the adults should have known better. This isn’t the first time I’ve seen this situation. In fact I see it more and more and again they do not follow the kids here totally an adult problem…

     They’re two reasons why this situation bothers me. First and foremost it’s is sad for the child because the adults in the room are missing out on a really good opportunity to teach him how to behave socially. A child doesn’t know how they’re supposed to dress, they are counting on an adult for that, especially at that age. We took our kids out to eat to nice places and to church when they were young and they knew from early on, there were church/dress up clothes and a time and place to wear them and they never complained. In fact, when our kids were staying with their grandparents for a few days while we were out of town once, my mother-in-law put my son‘s dress coat on him to go to preschool because she knew this was the last season for him to wear that coat as he was growing out of it and she wanted him to get used out of it because it was so cute. He ‘pitched a fit‘ because that was his “church coat“ and he wasn’t supposed to wear it to school he thought. We’ve laughed about that one for years. Anyway, it’s OK for kids to be dressed up. In fact I told my kids that sometimes people treat you different based on how you’re dressed, it’s not fair or right, but it’s true. I also secretly felt that when my kids were dressed up, they were better behaved. In this day of society of thin skinned people, had the Maitre d’ said anything to the adults there could’ve been an argument or backlash and most likely the owner/manager just didn’t want to deal with that situation and make a scene and I totally understand that. The restaurant business is hard right now, and why make your day any harder, I get that.

     Secondly, what bothers me about the situation is the disrespect for the other patrons in the restaurant and the owner of the restaurant. The other patrons like I said were all dressed up. We were paying a good amount of money for this meal. The owner of the restaurant tried to create a nice atmosphere and value for what they were charging their patrons. When someone doesn’t respect a dress code or even if there wasn’t a dress code when a menu is pricey, one just expects a certain decorum within a restaurant or occasion. These adults again, missing an opportunity to teach this lesson as well.

     A couple of days later, we were out and saw a young family at a similar quality restaurant. The Mom and Dad were dressed nicely and the two little boys, both appearing to be under age 10, wearing coats like their dad, with ties, shirts and dresspants. My husband, I stopped, to tell the parents that we commended them for them dressing their children appropriately and teaching them this important lesson. As we talk to the parents, the boys smiled. I could tell that they were proud of the way they looked. They both had neat haircuts, and this didn’t look like it was their it was their ‘first rodeo in this arena’ of life. I thought that the parents needed to be applauded for dressing their kids nicely and respecting those others around them out to dinner at a special place.

     Also, it is easier than ever now to dress a child nicely. With Amazon, Walmart, Target, Poshmark, Goodwill. And good old-fashioned ‘hand me downs,’ which is what I did with my kids, it is easier than ever to find very reasonably or inexpensive dress clothes for children and they don’t need a lot of dress up clothes; for a little boy, a sport-coat, pants, a tie and dress shoes. For a little girl, a pretty dresser or two for each season and a pair of dress shoes or sandals in the summer. That’s all they need. In my experience, most kids rather like getting dressed up and don’t mind it. The delivery of the lesson/message and how you explain what it means to dress up. You know the same could be said for church of course it doesn’t matter what you wear to church. Nobody’s up above striking people down for wearing blue jeans to church, but I do feel when you dress respectable whether it’s a wedding, funeral, church, party or out to dinner, you’re just showing respect to those involved or the the event.

     Back to the Cowboy thing; Cowboys like to get dressed up too. They usually have a fancy shirt and a shiny pair of boots set aside for special occasions. I do recall that when George W. Bush won the Presidency, the Texas State Society Ball had dress code of tuxedos and cowboy boots for the Black Tie & Boots Ball for both of W’s  Inaugurations ( 2001 & 2005), so yes, even cowboys know how to get dressed up … It’s a Great Day 🍎