When my sisters and I were growing up, I was usually burdened with the task of taking them to church on Sundays. Back then, as far as I was concerned, there were better things that an 11-year-old could be doing early on a Sunday morning in the country - like sleeping.

But sleep was not an option, what with the constant nagging of the parents, "Leighton, you not getting ready for church!?"

As I would trudge to the bathroom to be doused by ice-cold water from the shower, my mom would doll up my sisters, sometimes like they were twins: cute little pink or lavender dresses with white lace frills at the collars, sleeves and hems. They were adorable. That is perhaps why so many people used to remark how cute they were after we had walked the mile and a half to church.

I mention these times and the way my sisters used to dress because back in those days clothes were made specifically for children, so that they looked like children. More and more these days, children's clothing is being made to resemble smaller versions of clothing worn by women out to get laid.

Midriff blouses

I don't get, for example, why a five-year-old girl needs to be dressed in miniskirts and midriff blouses and capri pants. Of late I am also seeing little girls wearing the types of shoes that they should be wearing when they're 10 years older.

Who are these toddlers showing leg or any skin at all to? Five-year-old boys? That couldn't be, because at that age boys are more interested in cars, bicycles and dirt. So who then, the paedophiles?

My sisters, whenever they were going out, would be wearing jeans and T-shirts or modest dresses that went all the way down to their ankles. I guess that mode of dress just does not cut it anymore. By the time many little girls these days reach 12, all the mystery is gone and perhaps that explains in part why they are so 'easy' for the predators of this world.

Just who are their mothers dressing them up for? Halloween is like once a year and even then, dressing up your little girl like a hooker is not a great costume idea, I'm sorry. The thing is, if mothers keep dressing their little girls like little prostitutes, should they then be ranting and raving when their girls start acting the part by the time they hit puberty? Should they be pulling their hair out when they hear their daughters are pregnant, or worse, infected with HIV?

In you ask me, the companies that make these clothes should also be sanctioned. It is not cute when little girls are being dressed like their mothers. Why are we so eager to have them grow up? We should be savouring this time of their lives, listening to them offer their own peculiar renditions of the 23rd Psalm, eager to hear the interesting questions that they ask, like, 'if they are people living in the back of the television set' and other such gems, and watching them play with their dolls and have little tea parties.

The problem, though, is that some of today's mothers just want their children dragged up and out of the house so that they can get back to being the prostitutes they are now raising their daughters to be. As far as they are concerned, it's never too early to start practice.

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