Friday, April 11, 2008

Honestly

We spent a little time under the Golden Arches tonight as a treat for our kids. We NEVER go there for dinner so they were very surprised when we pulled in and parked. It is more of a get the kids out of the house and talk to some other moms for lunch kind of place. As usual, the play place offered an interesting cross section of the population. My main observation of the evening was the amount of t-shirts with questionable messages. Tonight's fare included "If you don't get caught it does not count" (worn by a mom with 6 kids), "Naughty girls have more fun" (worn by a girl about age 11) "I want what I want when I want it" and "I won't tell if you don't" (worn by elementary age girls). I know this rude t-shirt thing is a trend and I am a fan of shirts with random sayings. ("I do all of my own stunts", "It's all fun and games until the flying monkeys attack", "Recess is my favorite class", just to name a few.) The rude ones really disturb me. First of all, I feel bad for the kids whose parents let them wear these things......especially the naughty girls one on the adolescent girl......what kind of message is this sending? Secondly, I really don't want my kids to read the shirts and think the messages are okay. I don't know that there is a solution to the problem because they are everywhere. The only thing I know to do is to continue to talk to my kids about what is right and wrong and to keep their bodies "rude saying free" until what they wear is out of my control (when they are 30 :0) ). Am I overreacting or does this bother you too?
P.S. I asked Dann if this post is too soapboxy. His reply"Isn't that what a blog is?" Huh!
(when he saw me typing the PS he said "Sheesh, you'll write anything!" :0)
~Good Night~

6 comments:

lauraknight said...

Oh, this bothers me so much!! You are not alone in your feelings. I do not understand why parents allow their kids to wear shirts like the ones you mentioned.

Have a great Saturday!!

Alison B. said...

along these lines, i am also anti "words across the butt" of pants and shorts also. even if it is a team name or something like "princess." it just screams "my butt is something you should look at" and i cringe when i see little girls, middle age girls or big girls using their butt as a message board.

Becca said...

My husband doesn't the blog this either!:

And YES those shirts annoy me. But mostly, like you, they make me sad because those kid's parents are allowing them to wear, and probably buying those items. And really, what mother actually wants her daughter to be naughty?

Laura said...

I don't like those shirts either! And now that Rachel is reading and Katelyn is starting to read a little, I REALLY don't like those shirts! I don't want my girls to see that stuff and think it's okay. My opinion is it's fine if you want to wear that stuff in your house, but when you step out in public and force your offensive shirt on me & my kids, then I really have a problem! Why is it that people will wear stuff on their shirt for everyone to read, but those same people wouldn't have the nerve to actually say that to people?!?!?

And Alison, I totally agree with you about the words across the back of the shorts. It does scream "LOOK AT MY REAR!"

Anonymous said...

Ashley, I think that you and I had this discussion before at the Y. You know that I agree with you 110%on this. Naughty girls have more fun?? WHAT? :) How ugly is that? No, you weren't overreacting.

Anonymous said...

I'm glad that I have you & Amanda raised...now I do worry about the grands....Amanda had a shirt when she was small that said "Kid for rent cheap"...we thought that was pretty funny at the time....You are right on Ashley......Love, Grannie