in wanting to buy some clothing for my eight year old son that doesn't have skulls and skeletons and/or pictures of guns on everything????

[ghosty]

DS's school have a Grade 3 sleepover every year - they camp out at school for the night, loads of fun etc etc ...
It is Friday night.
Earlier on this week we assessed his pyjama situation and he begged me to buy him a 'cool' pair of pjs ... obviously he is worried that his stripey flannelette 'old man' pjs (which I adore on him) and his dinosaur pjs (old favourites) could cause him to be a figure of ridicule among his mates.
So off I went today to see what I could find. I was a bit stressed about finding something 'cool' as I was never the coolest chick on the block anyway but hey ho ...
I trawled the shops and it seems that 'cool' seems to be a bit violent though ... very nasty pictures of skulls and blood and/or soldiers with guns in khaki colours.
Foul.
I found one pair of 'soccer' pjs (being sporty DS likes them) and another pair of Bart Simpson ones (although a delinquent oik at least he isn't violent ....)

Similar situation for boy's daytime clothes too ...

Why the need for pictures and motifs on everything and why such horrible images?

Do I need to wake up and smell the coffee and accept that this is what we face when our children are the Yoof of today?

[ghosty]

Doh ... apostrope disaster alert .... boy's boys'

[ghosty]

apostrope apostrophe

Can you tell I am a bit flustered?

[themildmanneredstalker]

i have an eight year old too but he doesn't really wear anything like that.
he has one pair of pitate pjs from boden which have a skull and crossbones on the front of the t shirt but everything else is pretty plain.

[PuppyMonkey]

I do think boys get a rough deal yes - always very negative, even if not guns/skulls.

I was buying a new bib for dd2 the other day..

The one for boys said: Naughty little Monkey
The one for girls said: Little Princess

Why did the boy HAVE to be naughty????

[Lemontart]

No YANBU
I saw a very cute looking toddler in town yesterday. His black and white patterned hoodie top was covered with gun and bomb motifs along with plenty of similar slogans. Awful. I was so annoyed and disgusted by it that I had an involuntary complete body "shiver" in horror (to my embarrassment - blushed bright red as was in a queue in the shop and convinced everyone saw and heard me flip out for a second!). At first I was annoyed with myself for reacting so strongly to a piece of clothing but then thinking about it, perhaps my revulsion is justified. This sweet little 2-3 yr old boy dressed head to almost toe (it was down to his knees) in expressions of violence. Just nasty.

[zippitippitoes]

i noticed the prevalance of skulls the other day

i was looking at some jackets in woolies and saw one that might be vaguely suitable except it was in slatey camouflage style but when i peered myopicallu at the actual rfepeat design all over i worked out it was in fact a bizarre skull design

reminded me of polpot

[Lemontart]

re gender clothing: girls don?t have it that great either as it is so stereotyped pink/lavender/gemstones/high school musical or Barbie so much of the time.
I do not want my girls wearing T shirts with a picture of high heels picked out in rhine stones with the slogan "I am looking for a sugar daddy" or "shopoholic" or worse on there any more than I want to see a boy covered in "cheeky monkey" or "I live for dirt" all over them.

[seeker]

I know - boys clothes are a real problem if you don't go for "aggressive" images or slogans. I do tend to get most of ds's clothes from charity shops or second ha

Gap have nice ones sometimes, and so do Boden if you're prepared to take out a mortgage. Where do you get your "old man" ones? My ds would love them - he's seriously into comfort!

[seeker]

Sorry here's the rest of my second paragraph!...or second hand from ebay so that I can buy the more expensive makes which usually have images I prefer on them. Mind you - ds's favourite (charity shop) sweatshirt has "fat face" written on it - so maybe it's not much better!

[HIPPYFLIPPY]

Oh my God I so agree. You did the right thing Ghosty, a good compromise, not buying into that rubbish but still letting him have some cool pjs and not being singled out. Having 3 boys, I do a sweep every so often for t shirts, pj's and hoodies and am always upset by the negative slogans on boys tops. Are they meant to be funny and cute? It's just painting boys in the 'naughty little monster' light and girls in the 'pretty as a princess' light. And place them in it often enough and as they say 'if the shoe fits...' It's hard as my 10 year old is becoming a little bit more clothes aware of what is cool and what is dorky and so am very concious of that at the same time. Lemontart that is very disturbing, what are these immature unaware parents thinking putting them in something like that. Jesus, there is time enough for all that when they hit teenage years, while they are young, you have control. A thought though, "sugar and spice and all things nice" and "snails and puppy dog tails", Hmmmm, an image of how a boy is meant to be stigmated (right spelling prob not?!) right from birth or am I just getting far too silly and deep now?!

[bozza]

DS (7) still likes to wear the character ones (my rules have always allowed character branding on underwear and pjs but not on "proper" clothes). He has Ben 10 ones which might have a weapon on but I'm not sure because they are such a vivid green and huge cartoon I can't actually make out what is going on, some old Narnia ones, some very old football ones (like you, always go down well), and some power rangers ones which presumably have unfeasible weapons on. Only the Ben10 ones are from this summer and I have no idea what long ones he has got but suspect most will be ankle length when I dig them out.

[HIPPYFLIPPY]

Hear you there Lemontart. Friends who have girls say exactly the same, some of their clothes can make them look like mini tarts by the age of 8. Not so great either. They totally aiming it at the kids as they know some kids have so much more power over their parents than they used to.

[bozza]

hippyflippy i agree with you re the stereotypes and have always avoided them to an extent for my two but there is a tendency to get drawn in/worn down.

[JammyQueenOfTheSewers]

seeker - fat face is the name of a clothes shop, so not actually saying that the wearer is a fat face

[bozza]

Actually I think Next have cut back on the slogans a bit, 3-4 years ago just about everything in the childrens' dept had NEXT emblazoned across or the cheeky monkey/princess etc stuff going on.

[TheCrackFox]

Agree with OP - boys' clothes are depressing. They either assume that they are "nothing but trouble" or camouflage or skulls. Would agree that John Lewis are doing some nice boys' clothes at the moment.

[Upwind]

I don't see any problem with skulls but maybe that reflects my taste in music. Guns, bombs and negative labels are all in the worst possible taste though.

[kt14]

Next is the worst for skulls though, almost all this season's boy stuff seems to have them on there. It's that, monkeys or dinosaurs, so DS1 is dressed largely as a chimp for pre-school this morning.

[MuffinMclay]

kidsshouldbekids? Although I don't think they go much beyond 8 years. Great quality, fab colours, no slogans.

Definitely a gap in the market for nice boys' clothes. Next, M&S very poo imo.

[MuffinMclay]

poor not poo . Making a habit of these freudian slips today.

[Lemontart]

thank your for the link MiffinMclay - just as nice as some Tops I had almost ordered from La Redoute but a lot cheaper.
A fiver for a long sleeved stripy T shirt is not bad at all
Gonna go order a few non logo?d but still reasonably cool tops right now.
Just hope my girls think they are cool enough (not that they get a choice really but nice if they like and feel happy in the clothes I buy for them!)

[DontlookatmeImshy]

Not just clothes either. I was looking for a bag for ds1 for pre-school. Didn't want to get a Thomas one as it would just get lost in the middle of all the other thomas bags. Saw one with a train on that looked ok from a distance until I got close up and saw the caption in the corner "Here comes trouble"

WHy couldn't it just have the train on ffs?

[overthemill]

i likw boden pjs but a bit expensive, they do wear really well though!