DEAR SOMEONE ELSE’S MOM: Everyone tells me I should be happy she isn’t covered with tattoos and piercings, but my 17-year-old daughter has recently gotten into this new look. The funky clothes don’t worry me as much as the biker-chick makeup, and what’s with the greasy hair?
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I keep telling her heading to college looking like that is going to send out a lot of wrong messages, but she doesn’t want to hear it, and her mom, my ex, says she’s fine with it. I just know what I would have thought about a girl looking like that when I was 19-20, and that’s not how I want my daughter to be taken. Am I wrong here? --- WORRIED DAD
DEAR WORRIED DAD: Sometimes we have to pick our battles, and this may be one of those times.
You’ve made your opinion clear, which is what parents have a right to do. Now, you have to step back and let her do her thing, which is another part of being a parent. If she doesn’t feel like you’re judging her every choice, she’ll be a lot more likely to keep you in her life.