It's amazing how a word means one thing to one generation and is bastardized in the next. Last night our 11-year-old daughter told my husband and I that she saw a cool monokini on the Walmart website.

Talk about overreacting and freaking out. Both DH and I were adamant about DD not even thinking about wearing a monokini. Shades of Rudy Gernreich's original monokini filled our thoughts (yes we are old as dirt!). We were both kids when the original monokini hit the runway.

The only problem is that DD's monokini is this:

Now granted we're still not letting our 11-year-old wear something like this, but there's a lot more covered in the Walmart version than good old Rudy's. After showing DD what the original monokini looked like she had a better feel for why DH and I both freaked out at what she said.

We all had a good laugh and it just goes to show that you need to make sure you're speaking the same language before going off the deep end. While DD won't be sporting the new version of the monokini, I'm sure we'll find something a bit more appropriate for our DD to wear to the pool this summer. Her Dad thinks something like this would be perfect:

I'm sure DD and I will find something in between that will make her happy and Dad as well.