Will Your Little One Be Sporting A "Babykini" At The Beach?
Would you put this on your child?
Summer’s here. That means beach trips, lawn sprinklers and pool parties. Swimsuit season.
For parents of girls, swimsuit season comes with an increasingly inescapable question: are you going to let your daughter wear that?
Last month, I wrote about how more and more girls’ clothes are incorporating “sexy” adult features. There’s perhaps no worse culprit than the “babykini”. Why do string bikinis for babies even exist? And who buys these things?
The whole point of a bikini is to show off as much of a woman’s body as she can get away with, while strategically hiding the naughty bits. It’s meant to make you look. Babies don’t have naughty bits. Why would you put something like that on a baby? It’d be like dressing your toddler in lingerie.
Personally, I don’t see why a baby or toddler needs a swimsuit at all. A swim diaper, sure, if they’re not potty trained. Otherwise, what are you covering up? There’s something creepy about putting a bikini top on a toddler, as if her body could be sexualized that way. There’s nothing sexual about a baby’s body. Putting sexy clothes on them just seems wrong.
Of course, we all have bigger things to worry about than whether or not your baby’s cuteness is wrapped up in a string bikini. It’s not like the kid is involved in these fashion choices, or will even remember them. For some parents, it’s probably cute the way mini biker jackets are cute: tiny versions of adult clothes that are adorable because they’re so wrong on a baby.
Still, for me the sexy swimwear is over the line. I had a hard enough time letting my seven-year-old have a tankini this year instead of a one-piece suit. There’s no way I’d put a string bikini on a baby.
How about you? Do you think this takes the sexy baby clothes thing too far, or is it just cute?
Photo: Family Style
Anyone ever hear of sunburn?
No your child shouldn’t be in a bikini, any more than they should be nude or just in a swim diaper.
The one of the best ways to avoid sunburn and harmful UV exposure is wearing garments to protect your skin. Sunscreen is wonderful, but it is usually full of chemicals, can easily wear off, and isn’t recommended for babies under a certain age.
They make some really cute “surf” style suits for kids that protect their bodies without being overly hot, and are perfect for playing in the water and the sand.
Baby bikinis are creepy and inappropriate. Buck naked, swim diaper or as previous poster stated, a sunblocking outfit are all great options. But I don’t want to see itty bitty baby boobies in an itty bitty bikini.
Ew
We went with tankinis. It’s too hard to wrestle my kid in and out of a one-piece if she needs a change. For what it’s worth, my mother has pictures of me in a teeny bikini at 2 or 3 and that was back in the early 80s. Apparently they weren’t as controversial back in the day.
She would be so much cuter if she weren’t so flat chested – maybe a padded top would make her look sexier?
If sunscreen is so ineffective, you should use a ninja suit to beat the sun. I mean, that will cover the tops of your arms, feet, and face. Better than those skimpy swim shirts. (Poster sounds like a big prude in disguise to me. No nudity! No swim diapers)
Everything has to be an issue. Kids want to be pretty and dress like momma. So what? Yes, there are perverts out there, but they will be perverts regardless of attire. Have you ever seen a split front one piece? Shows way more, but everyone automatically hears “string” and thinks it must be awful. It is not even that much less fabric. If they are young enough to go around nude or in a diaper, who cares if they swim in a little suit. Always looking to pickvon something.
No way! I’m okay with tankini suits, as long as the butt is covered and not too much tummy is showing. The hyper-sexualization is one thing, but what bothers me the most is how it restricts little girls from moving as freely and exhuberantly as they want to. Girls in bikinis are always tugging the tops down and fixing the straps and basically paying way more attention to the suit than how to execute the perfect cannonball. Doesn’t apply to babies, obviously, but babies in bikinis are just creepy.
so clothes like this make a person sexy…LOL and youd rather her run around naked or in a diaper….not much sense to me. a full bathing suit with a flower theme skirt is something id choose for my daughter if i had one. this soiciety is too perverted for my taste with a huge gutter mind, everything is sexy….which it shouldnt be as this is childs clothing the thought of sexy shouldnt even be in the same sentence with a childs bikini which it is just that, why because an adult wears it should it be thought of as sexy. if you thought about it the kiid looks like a chubby male midget whats so sexy about that, kids cute and if the parents want to dress her in that so be it….this is disturbing though to me that anyone would consider this as sexy what a cracked society i live in. Sad sick america.
fyi have you seen grown adults in a bikini , most of them are not sexy at all, ether so skinny there arms and legs look like flamingos, or they are so overweight the bikini looks like dental floss for both upper and lower areas which is supposed to cover both areas fully, and why not pick on boys shorts which shows there chest area because i guess thats considered so damn sexy to perverted minds who want to pick at everything too shreds.cracked society where everything is an issue.
I think bikini’s on babies & young girls can be cute depending on the cut of the suit & their body shape. The above picture of the baby wearing the “string bikini” with the “sexy adult features” is crossing the line in my opinion & not cute. It is important that as mothers, we teach our daughters the value of modesty in this sex-obsessed society that we live in. However, it can be a tough line as we attempt to not cross over into legalism, especially as they get older as that will typically just cause them to rebel.
I personally think the babies look adorable in the bikinis, because babies can wear anything and look cute. HOWEVER – I would not be putting my child in one of those because in my opinion you are setting a precedent for the future, and personally, I don’t want my 7 year old in a bikini either. I want to teach modesty, and don’t want them to think as they get older they have to show more skin to be beautiful. That being said, i won’t wear a bikini either…if it’s not okay for my daughter, i want to lead by example….and at 5’1, 118 lbs, i could fit into a bikini. But i refuse to say, “it’s okay for me, but it’s not okay for you”. There are many other ways you can look beautiful without “bearing it all”. Someone else mentioned tankinis which are a great alternative- covers way more, but is a little more convenient in getting on and off.
yes i think the string thing is a little overboard but it doesn’t matter anyway bc #1 that baby is far from being potty trained & no public pool will let a child swim with out a swimmy diaper & the string bottom is not going to look over the diaper & #2 one bm in that SMALL bikini bottom & i guarantee no mom is going to want to deal with cleaning it up again!!!
I think it is ridiculous and NO, I wouldn’t make my daughter wear that. I got one piece swimsuits that perfectly show her adorable self.
I think this is what they call gilding the lily – taking something naturally beautiful and making it look like trash.
Not so cute when you think about the perverts that will look at your little girl in a bikini and think they look “sexy”. You all know what I mean. It’s sad but true. That alone puts it into perspective for me. The time will come when they will make their own decision to get a bikini. And even at 12 or 13 I think is too young and too soon. I think it’s cute if your in the privacy of you own backyard. I have seen baby one pieces and they too are adorable, and much more appropriate.
No baby bikinis, and no swim diaper only. I don’t feel comfortable with taking a half-naked baby girl in public. Her private parts are still her private parts even though they’re small and cute right now. There are enough creepy people in the world to whom no age is too young for sexy thoughts and the last thing I want to do is feed that,
I think it’s just as gross to let your daughter run around naked or in just a diaper on the beach as it is to put her in a bikini. You say, perverts will look at your little girl wearing strings but I bet they’d be looking at your little naked baby way more than they would be looking at the bikini’d girl. After all, it’s what’s under the clothes that those sickos want. You’re might as well take a photo and hand it over to them.
I’m good with one pieces or even just shorts and a t-shirt/tank top. Sure the shorts and top will take a bit longer to dry but whatever. When I was a little girl, my mom allowed me to wear both and I don’t remember either getting in the way of my fun.
When you’re talking about children under the age of 5 or 6, what’s the point of a girl even wearing a top at all? They are physically identical to boys of the same age, and while nobody has any issue at all with boys’ “private parts” being visible to the (blown WAY out of proportion threat of perverts and sickos) they typically advocate incarcerating anybody who suggests a girl, even a baby or toddler, being without a top in public. It’s ludicrous.
Our society has a completely skewed view on the naturalness of the human body, and most people can’t get their minds out of the gutter. Nakedness, partial or complete, does NOT equal sex.
The solution isn’t to cover a child up all the time, either, as some- even some commenters here- will tell you. That only makes the problem worse by making people think there’s something to hide on a 5 year old girl’s chest.
There is nothing shameful or sexual about a child’s body, and if more children were to be allowed to play on the beach or any other public place the way they would most enjoy- supervised as they should always be- people would begin to see the truth of that.
It saddens me to see small girls wearing bathing suits, and even “regular” clothes, that treat them as if they were already adults. Let them be kids, and if that means letting them run down the beach or across the playground without a top on, or even with nothing on at all, for God’s sake let them do it.
Wow! This has been a real cultural enlightenment for me, reading these columns! I would have never guessed that people would have a problem with naked babies or babies in little swimsuits. My FAVOURITE bathing suit of all time was a gorgeously colour ‘bini’ as I called it, I wore it until I was two and it barely fit any more. Most of the time, though, we just swam naked. I understand the argument that perverts exist, etc, but, it seems that, in this case, it’s not perverts sexualising children, it’s parents. What’s wrong with a cute naked baby at the beach? Being a child should be about having the freedom to be a child, to not be pushed into being shamed or concerned about our bodies, nudity, or decency. What are we telling our kids by sending them those messages, before they could truly process them? Sexy is in the eye of the beholder. We can allow our kids to be cute, without having to ascribe sexiness to a BABY in a swimsuit. But then again, if I had boys, they’d be wearing Speedos! Nobody here wears board shorts