I'd like to say this if I may.
I was raised in the church. I'm so glad I was too because the foundation was laid. We lived in church, Sunday morning, Sunday night, Tuesday night and Thursday night. It's great to raise your kids in church, like I said, they all need the foundation of knowing the Lord and learning the commandments, etc. However, it can be too much. When my girlfriends and I turned 18, that was it. No more church. We felt we had had enough to last us a lifetime. Part of that was not being allowed to do anything with friends outside of the church.
I was spanked at the age of 14, in front of all of my friends, for going with friends to see "Gone With The Wind", because there was a curse word in it. I will never forget how mortified and humiliated I was in front of my friends.
I feel that you have to be very careful and pick your battles about what to be severely stict about. I had to wear the kinds of bathing suits that have been posted here. Not the one I posted, but the others. Two things happened. Either I didn't go swimming at all or if I was allowed to go with friends, I would borrow one of theirs and change immediately after my parents dropped me off.
It depends on the age of the teen, but if you're talking about a girl from the ages of 14-18, how they look, or should I say how they feel they look is of the utmost importance to them. I'm not saying let everything hang out. But to dress them in what I consider Mawmaw bathing suits is embarrassing to most of them.
I'm just posting this because I don't want what happened to my parents and to me to happen to anyone else. The strictness totally turned me away from the Lord. I think letting them wear a bathing suit that is in style, not mawmawish, but doesn't show everything God gave them, is not a big thing. I think you have to pick your battles with teens. Save the real strict stuff for things that can really hurt them. I let my granddaughters wear the kind of bathing suit I posted when they were in their teens and they are perfectly good, respectible young women today.
Again, it's totally your choice, but I'm telling you, if you are too strict when it comes to the little things, they can bolt, just like I did. There is a thing as too strict and usually rebellion follows. This is just my honest opnion and not intended to offend or hurt anyone's feelings.
When I looked again at the suit I had posted, I think you're right Granny that it is cut a little too high. Maybe something like this would be more appropriate.
Cheri
