My 3.5-year-old loves lakes, pools, water parks, and puddles. She is happiest splashing around in her bathing suit -- a suit that is always a one-piece.

Why? Because I said so.

Babikini is a company that offers string bikinis for baby girls. They range in sizes from newborn up to about age 7 and they are cute ... for an adult.

I have never and will never put my daughter in a bikini. I would sooner she go naked.

And even if I were to put her in a bikini, it wouldn't be one with leopard stripes or strings that tie the sides. I know other mothers disagree with me, but about this, I am adamant. My daughter will not wear a bikini until she has breasts that make it necessary.

After all, what else are you covering with that little top? There is an implication that there is something to "hide" when, in fact, there is nothing there.

It's not that I'm against bikinis. I just think they're sexy. And sexy? Has no place on a preschooler.

A bikini was designed to attract men and anyone who questions that ought to ask themselves why swimsuit models wear bikinis and not burqas.

I have no problem with sex. It's great fun and there's almost nothing I love more than flirting and attracting the opposite sex. But those are grown-up activities. When my daughter is at the beach, she should be building a sandcastle while wearing a ruffled one-piece.

She has her whole life to be "sexy" and I'm getting sick of a culture that says she has to wear a logo on her rear or gyrate on a pole or wear jeggings or don sexy swimwear to be a happy little girl.

It's not just that the suit is sexy, either. It also supports our "bikini culture" that says she has to look a certain way to look good in a bikini and I'm not quite ready to hear the words "bikini diet" come out of the mouth of a little girl who isn't even yet aware that "fat" exists.

When she is 14, we can hash this out again, but until then I am the mama and I say it's a one-piece or nothing.

Would you let your daughter wear a bikini?


Image via babikini.com