Another moan about boys' clothes... so annoyed!

[snowleopard]

Firstly MIL, bless her heart, sends DS World Cup England kit for his birthday. He is 1, and we live in Scotland... luckily she also bought the wrong size and put the receipt in so I had every excuse to exchange it. They don't even sell the England stuff here so I had to get something different. Hurrah, £15 to spend in M&S on something nice for DS.

What do I find - for 1-year-olds - a load of stuff with not only endless skulls and crossbones, but, and I quote:

"I'm trouble"
"Tiny but trouble"
"Trouble-maker"
"Bad"
"Bad attitude"

etc etc ad nauseam. OK I have seen this kind of thing around and I've always hated it but M&S?? On practically their whole range??? Are they mad? Why don't they just write "self-fulfilling prophecy" and "boys are little wankers" and have done with it?

. I shall be writing to head office... (when I've done the squijillion other things waiting to be done after getting back from holiday... :))

The Nazi swastika and the Hindu one are different - the wheel of the arms is reversed.

(Sorry for Soupy, just to back up what Is aid - in NO WAY am I arguing Swastikas are ok, just that we have to realise the cultural validity of them)

www.jainheritagecentres.com/new/new1.htm

HANDS OFF OUR SACRED SWASTIKA

• HEMANT G PADHYA

?Hands off our sacred Swastika? must be the loudest roar of the followers of Vedic or Hindu Dharma and all its sects all over the world to save the divinity, purity, auspiciousness, serenity, prestige and position Swastika holds in human race, after the German members of European Parliament called for the total ban on the use of Swastika all over Europe in protest of Prince Harry?s provocation of international outrage by wearing Nazi outfits with a swastika arm band in a private fancy dress party. It is shocking and astonishing news for the lovers of Swastika, irrespective of their faiths, all over the world that the European parliament is in opinion of considering such a ban on this innocent symbol. What has Swastika done wrong? What is the crime of Swastika? Once the most popular, respected, beloved, revered and worshipped symbol of human being all over the world by all races and all faiths is facing socially, religiously and ethical discrimination in Christian dominated European Parliament.

And if that bored you then be glad I didn't post the whole article.

SaintGeorge, the bans calls for a ban of ALL Swastikas, hence it is relevant. Also, whilst you and I know the difference, how many people do? I think that's the thing. People need to be educated what a Swastika should look like perhaps, but theya re all Swastika.

Message withdrawn

It is oh foodstuffy fellow

Best way to deal with clothing that you dislike is to put your money where your mouth is & don't buy it.
Camoflage clothing is used in lots of other ways than just for war. Anyone working with wild animals or birds will wear it. Shame that everyone thinks camoflage is automatically for war.
Asda & Primark have loads of lovely cotton clothes for boys and girls without any slogans on at all & it is cheap too.

Yes, lots of people wear army surplus clothing too. Its primary function, and its main semiotic implication, is war/the military.

well, since there is a war (actually more than one, but let's stick to the one in which this country is involved), I see camouflage and I think about war. I wish I could just think about animals and birds. so I just don't buy camouflage or combat trousers.
but let's talk about girls clothes....

it will take along time for the swastika to be connected to anything other than the second world war.

well, since there is a war (actually more than one, but let's stick to the one in which this country is involved), I see camouflage and I think about war. I wish I could just think about animals and birds. so I just don't buy camouflage or combat trousers.
but let's talk about girls clothes....

i saw a small girl in the park yesterday wearing a t-shirt that said' this is waht spoiled looks like'
why? why would you want your child to wear that?
my other particular favourite was a m&s boys top that had " bad to the core" written on.yuk.

john lewis is good for boys things-lots of stripes and plains.i get the boys quite a few bits from there.

It will SEA and that's good, as long as people don't associate it purely with nazi ism. We just need tor ealise that the Swastika is more than that. They should be able to reclaim it gradually.

Good links MrsB (as ever). Thank you.

I don't in all honesty think that a pair of camouflage trousers or t-shirt is dressing your child to look like a small soldier. I don't particularly like it myself but could understand why some mother's would choose camouflage clothing given that it doesn't show the dirt.
I dislike slogan clothing as it suggests an inability to express yourself, you need a clothing manufacturer to do it for you.
At least in this country we have the freedom & in most cases the income to choose.

The best way of preventing your kids clothes showing the dirt isn't to dress them in camouflage, its to wash them.

Just a thought

my ds (12) friend dresses in cam all the time, but he is really into paintballing and quasar

What every 10 minutes peacyclair?

Actually we discussing that other controversial clothing choice for little boys - football shirts. And I was thinking that a Barcelona shirt (dark red and blue stripes) would be a good choice. Colours will not show up every little stain like white England shirt does and no ironing required.

(I was being controversial Bozza, apparently I am neither controversial enough nor have a memorable enough name to be known on MN)

My kids are pretty much the filth by tea time. I try and stick to one change a day, for environmental / lazy aresed reasons, although DS3 has a tendency to break the rules atm by removing his nappy surreptituiously.

my ds lives in football shirts from all over the world, he sort of collects them they are so quick to wash and dry, i am just waiting for the black phase!

DS1 has ben going through ablack and grey phase since he was a toddler, one whole summer aged three he wore grey school tyope shorts. > HOW boring? Now he will wear orange too. Looks like bloody hallowee'en kid.

DS1 chose some camouflage shorts from Boden and the camouflage Doodles, because they were green, his favourite colour. He wears them with plain t shirts and socks and war/soldiers had not entered either of our heads!

I guess red coats are out the window then too

If it's "irresponsible and despicable" to allow a child to wear any item that's camouflage, then what would you suggest for a birdwatching trip? Dayglo pink, perhaps?

(and, for the record, my DS doesn't own any camouflage items actually, tell a lie, he does own one blue camouflage hat because he needed a sunhat, it was the only one available that day, and I think it would have been more irresponsible and despicable to have left him hatless. He does have a lot of khaki trousers because they suit him and it's just a colour they aren't even slightly militaristic in style. If we're going to rule out entire colours then boys also won't be able to wear red (army dress uniform colour), navy blue (navy uniform colour), black (army dress uniform trousers), white (I'm sure the navy sometimes wear white tops) or anything that might possibly be mistaken for airforce blue)

personally we don't choose camouflage but that is our option

its the endless skull and crossbone logo ty0e things that get to me, or dodgy slogans. DS1 has a t shirt that I didn't realise said 'I like to win: you have been warned' across it. I find that is fairly aggressive.