The message you send with your Halloween costume

In the 1950s little boys and girls enjoyed dressing up as their favorite characters from TV shows and movies—G.I. Joe, the Little Mermaid, Elvis. Nowadays, however, it seems to be a bit different. In the immortal words of Mean Girls character Cady Heron, "In girl world, Halloween is the one night a year when girls can dress like a total slut and no other girls can say anything about it." But bare in mind, by "girls," I am talking about children—not teenagers.

Halloween is a holiday of make-believe and dress up. However, this dress up should have some level of decency.

For those who would say, "Let kids be kids," would you let your third grade daughter or little sister wear a "naughty maid" costume with fishnet stockings and a mini skirt? Yes or no? Why not? Perhaps because you might be concerned it gives off the wrong impression to other parents—or your daughter's fellow students? Trust me, they make inappropriate costumes for children that age—"Google" it.

Dr. Robyn Silverman of Patch.com calls this trend "the pornification of children's costumes." It is along the same lines of girls developing eating disorders at younger and younger ages. It is a societal trend and young girls are feeling the pressure to fit societal stereotypes.

Do you want your little sister to be known as the class tramp? Children can be cruel and I personally don't want to give my children's classmates any more ammunition to tease them.

Perhaps it should be the goal of parents to stand against societal trends for what they know is appropriate behavior for their children.

 Just for the record, if you are one of the parents who want to be your child's "friend" and not their "parent" and you think the best way to get your child to love you is to let them do or wear whatever they want—you are in for a surprise when they grow up.

If you aren't one of "those parents," think about using Halloween as a teachable moment to tell your kids that sometimes the popular way is not necessarily the best way—and they don't need to show their skin to be popular.

I'm not suggesting that the only appropriate costume for a young child is that of a princess or a cowboy.

However, it you look at a costume on your child and there is a higher proportion of bare skin to fabric—there is probably a problem.