Many a father has told his daughter “don’t you go out dressed like that!” and it certainly is important that dads continue to do so.
But we need to remember our priorities.
There’s an old saying that “familiarity breeds contempt,” and there certainly is a lot of truth to that. Many times when someone starting living together with a close friend in the same room, their friendship gets ruined. There’s something about being too close that is bad for a relationship. When we get used to seeing someone at their sloppiest, we lose respect for them. Familiarity, indeed, breads contempt.
How then can a family, and especial a husband and wife, protect themselves from that contempt?
The answer is dignity.
We need to live in a dignified manner that is respectful to each other and doesn’t make it too difficult to be respected by them. This means speaking, eating, and dressing in a respectful and dignified manner.
So perhaps, if someone’s daughter is dressed in a less than dignified manner, they should say “don’t you be in the house dressed like that, if you want to dress like that, go out.”
The most important thing is to protect the dignity and harmony of the home and those living in it. They deserve more respect, not less, than the strangers outside.
