Today, my husband and I were at a restaurant and there were local students there eating dinner, decked out in homecoming finery. I was so pleased to see all the young ladies dressed appropriately and looking classy - nothing too tight or too revealing. Furthermore, the whole table of teenagers all took a few seconds to say a non-religious, but thankful grace together before eating. I can only hope that my young daughter will follow the great example set forth by these kids when she's their age. MMT

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Hopefully, though, you allow her to experiment as SHE pleases, and if she wants to wear revealing clothing, you'll allow her, even though something tells me you probably won't. Wearing revealing clothes doesn't mean you're not setting forth a good example, and vice versa, so just bear that in mind, OP.

I was so befuddled by this that I had to create an account to comment. "A non-religious, but thankful grace..." What exactly is a non-religious grace? "We thank the heavens above for granting us the opportunity to come together for this wonderful evening???" And if they had said a religious prayer before eating, would it have not been a great example? Why specify that the grace was non-religious? I mean, when I get together for a family dinner, I don't specify, "Okay, I'm going to say a non-religious and all-inclusive grace for the family members who are agnostic. Now I'm going to say a Lutheran grace, and now I'll say a Catholic prayer." Who talks like this?

Why are we judging on this post? As a young adult, I've noticed a very strong correlation with my fellow students who "dressed revealingly" or were disrespectful in public places, and their success. That doesn't mean it's fact by any means, and certainly isn't a prediction for the future--it's just my area and trends change from place to place, time to time, and person to person. So the OP observed this and was pleasantly surprised: either way, why do you judge? That isn't what this site is here for. Go nitpick somewhere else.

While the intent of this seems to be that the OP is pleased by young adults showing what she feels to be a proper way to present themselves it's come across as arrogant and judgmental. So if one of the girls in the group was wearing a sleeveless mini-dress and did not say grace would she have been the unacceptable one? Would this be a story about hoping your daughter didn't turn out like that 'hussie who didn't say grace'? The unspoken but heavily implied suggestion that the OP would shun other young adults who where not displaying religious practices or dress-code choices she did not approve of. What if they where dressed to the nines in hardcore punk attire, but said the most astonishingly beautiful grace you'd ever heard? Would they have still been acceptable by your standards? Or if their grace didn't involve the specific god you believe in? What if they where dressed conservatively but where sloppy and loud and annoying? It's these sorts of implications that leave readers feeling agitated and the OP sounding arrogant. And no, there really is no such thing as a non-religious grace. Grace is thanking a higher power for what the individuals involved have been given, it doesn't matter if no specific deity was named during their grace. The very nature of saying grace is a religious one. What it really comes down to is that the OP was still making snap judgement's about the lifestyles of strangers, regardless if she believes it's positive in keeping with her own ideals. Even if you think your judgement's are positive it doesn't mean you have a place to make them and then carry it over into your own young child's life.

Thank you, Emmers. I couldn't have said it better.

The OP expressed that she was impressed by these young ladies, and hoped that her daughter would display similar actions someday. I don't feel that that was judgmental or arrogant, and thank you for sharing the story, OP. Also, I'm disappointed to see such negative comments on a site that I've always viewed as beautiful and thought-provoking

Kcm, it's your opinion that challenging thoughts are negative ones. If you only think about how beautiful things are, are you using your mind to its best purpose or are you confusing blind agreement with thought? I think different perspectives can be beautiful.

I didn't write "non-religious" - someone editing my entry added that. I'm going to ask them to remove the post if they can't imply that the young people exhibited faith.

Also, I do not think I am judgmental, but as a high school English teacher, I see many girls throughout every school day who feel the need to use their bodies to be popular, rather than their beautiful personalities. If feeling like 16-year-old girls wearing mini-skirts that come an inch below their bottoms and tops that show an overwhelming amount of cleavage is inappropriate is being judgmental, then yeah, I guess I am. Furthermore, I have no problem with people who don't say grace before every meal, but so many young people feel peer-pressured that showing thankfulness is not "cool" - but these kids felt free to publicly give thanks. I think that's awesome. Sue me.

Geez, is there something *wrong* with having class and saying grace before a meal? Personally, I don't think people who are still legally minors have ANY business wearing revealing or sexy clothes. Good on their parents for raising them right, so they want to make mature choices on their own.

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