It's Week 5 of my Stream of Consciousness Sunday posts & my topic is kid shopping - specifically boy shopping. Granted I cheated a little because I wanted to show you a few examples of what has been driving me a little crazy since I started shopping for big boy sized clothing for Munchkin.
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| From Gap |
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| Also From Gap |
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| From Old Navy |
Why is it that little boys clothes have to progress from teddy bears to skulls and crossbones?! I'm all good with animals like sharks & dinosaurs, bikes, surfing, some pirate gear, super hero, cars, even camouflage, but I'm not feeling skulls & crossbones on my 4 or 5 year old's little body - at least not yet. I hear from a friend that boys love skulls & crossbones, but this Momma, who has the wallet & makes the buying decisions does not.
Daddy is a deer hunter & I feel that weapons in general carry a lot of weight & responsibilities. It's our job to teach Munchkin the appropriate uses for things like guns - as a way to protect society for law enforcement or as the equipment of choice for the sport of hunting. There is no in between in my opinion. We are already having to remind him that it's not appropriate to point guns at people - whether they are play guns or not. Violent messages whether they are in a video game or on clothing send mixed messages to our kids. I equate those types of graphics with death & violent actions & don't want those types of things glorified. I'm afraid of my child being de-sensitized in the process.
This was my 5 minute Stream of Consciousness Sunday post. It’s five minutes of your time and a brain dump. Want to try it? Here are the rules…
Set a timer and write for 5 minutes only.
§ Write an intro to the post if you want but don’t edit the post. No proofreading or spellchecking. This is writing in the raw.
§ Publish it somewhere. Anywhere. The back door to your blog if you want. But make it accessible.
§ Add the Stream of Consciousness Sunday badge to your post.
§ Link up your post at all.things.fadra
If you liked this post, you might also enjoy: Stream of Consciousness Sunday - Motherhood in the Forties or Stream of Consciousness Sunday - Mom's Night Out
6 comments:
I am with you. I don't want my son (or daughter) to walk around in skulls and the like. I am weird, though, because I don't like water guns, either. Samuel actually wears a lot of plaid shirts, hawaiian shirts. At ten he has given up on anything "character" related. Too grown up for that. But surf clothes, cool. Plaid clothes, cool. The occasional camou including his new backback for fifth grade but ugh... nothing otherwise.
I was just at Target today, and they had pirate themed sandwich bags for .50cent apiece. I didn't get them because they had a skull on it. I might be kind of weird, but like you said about the weapons, symbols also have meaning.
As the mom of now two girls, with a fantasy loving husband (and I'm a geek too) I like pirate stuff. I find some of the pirate themed stuff for girls to be a nice alternative to the over the top pink princess/weak/somebody needs to save me stuff that is out there for girls. Especially when at 4 she is wearing bigger sizes as a tall kid and we now are fighting with trying to find things that aren't inappropriate for anyone under the age of 18.
Part of it may have to do with the fact that I associate pirates with swords, not guns.
That being said, I don't like any of those skull motifs. Too "real" for little kids clothing. It must be the boy version of the "sexy" side of little girls stuff.
my youngest boy is five. I won't let him wear that sort of thing either. He still wears dinosaurs and super heroes. Spider-man is his thing right now. I'm all for web-slinging over gun-slinging any day.
Now my oldest boy is 15. He does wear this kids of stuff. He has free choice to wear what he wants as long as there is 1.) no profanity 2.)it is the proper size. not hanging off his rear, etc. He still goes the surfer/skate board route of style than anything.
Our boys aren't into the skull & crossbones things yet, but wouldn't be surprised if one eventually is. I don't know how I would feel about it. I think it would depend on why it interested him.
I have two boys (5 and 7) and two girls (2 and 3). As far as weapon play and camo and skulls and the like...sigh!!! I have my foot on both sides of the fence. My boys, when playing together at our house nurture stuffed animals, make forts, draw, invent games, etc. Introduce ANY other boys into the mix and immediately they are playing some kind of violent game w/ or w/o toy guns. We homeschool for many reasons, but one of them is to make their magical childhoods last longer and instill peaceful values while they are still influenced by us over their peers. We are also on the receiving end of hand me down clothes and I sometimes wonder if I should've turned down the camo and skull n bones stuff...but with 4 kids I didn't want to seem picky...hand me down clothes are a godsend! Anyway...I totally get you and want to stress that you shouldn't judge yourself negatively for the choices you're making for your son...they come from the heart!
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