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... :))

I have sat and read this thread becoming more and more irate at the stupid, hurtful, bitchy comments that some of you have made.

It is all good and well to be annoyed at a particular store because they don't sell the clothes you are after but to sit here and slag off and insult anyone who like or buys those clothes is really really low.

My ds is 7months old and I have some t-shirts that say cheeky monkey and my mum bought him a jumper from m+s that said little monster on it both these items are lovely and practical and suit my ds down to the ground, so for someone to sit here and say that I must have an IQ of under 65 because I like them is just bloody bitchy and nasty.

With regards to the camouflage issue I personally don't like it because it just isn't what I want to see my son in, but again some of the comments on here have astounded me. GET A GRIP.

If you don't like the bloody clothes that are available then don't buy them but please do not sit at your computer slagging of a large group of MNers and feeling all smug about it because a few people happen to agree with your childish and insensitive comments.

flutterbee you're right at a few posts that did take it too far, but we are entitled to have a choice in what our kids wear, and when the cheap stores (the only one I have access to on a regular basis is Asda) stock nothing but, then we also have a right to be saddened and make it known. I dodn't have enough money to take my custom elsewhere, I ended up last week nuying a white t-shirt and dying it because Ds1 needed a specific coloura nd all the ones they ahd were militray and / or pirate. As entitles as youa re to put your kids in whatever you want, so am I, and I'd like a choice please.

Thats fine peachy, I am the first one to stand up and shout if stores don't offer a good enough variety and I will moan all day long on a thread about it, but when I clicked on this one (ready for a moan) I stumbled across a thread that has been turned into a total bitchfest.

Ds has a lovely pair of trousers in a camouflage pattern from Mothercare - when he wore them to playgroup everyone commented on how nice they are. They are not militaristic in style - just the pattern.

And thanks, Greensleeves, but my IQ is much higher than 65. And I don't equate dressing little boys in camouflage-patterned trousers with turning them into soldiers - to me they're just patterned trousers - makes a change from plain denim, navy, brown or beige.

Agree with flutterbee - if you don't like them, don't buy them. But don't go around labelling people as thick just because they do.

I do think the 65 IQ thing was too much. Everyone has a right to their own choice in these things- a different choice doesn't make you bad. For example, if you saw my ds's lunch today MN would kick off (as always)- chocolate cup cake AND creme caramel! - but then if you see DS he's so tiny and thin, and he can't eat lots of stuff, so I make my choice according to what's right for my family. And have an IQ high ewnough that I got an A in my Uni exams. (129 last time tested, to be exact, although IQ's are debatable in themselves)

At the beginning of this thread I was ready to agree wityh everything as I am getting increasingly frustrated buying clothes for ds.

However the turn it has taken has made me want to go out and buy as much camouflage and slogan clothing as I can afford and dress ds him in it at every opportunity just on the off cahnce that some of the posters on here might see him and be upset by it.

I am gobsmacked at how rude some people have been about this. Today had definitely been a day for the mn food (and now we add clothing) police.

Having read ome of the more recent contributions to the thread, I make a slight amendment to my original statement. Not everyone who dresses their child in military/combat clothing is actually stupid. Some are completely barking. Others are just deliberately blinkered, because it's easier not to see your own choices as part of a social phenomenon that affects other people. I still think it's irresponsible and despicable, and I still think camouflage colours on little boys are offensive and are intended to have military overtones. I'm not the only person to have expressed my opinion strongly on this thread because it's something I feel strongly about. It's my opinion and I've seen nothing so far that changes it. Live with it

"However the turn it has taken has made me want to go out and buy as much camouflage and slogan clothing as I can afford and dress ds him in it at every opportunity just on the off cahnce that some of the posters on here might see him and be upset by it."

Nothing like using your child as a billboard to advertise your gripes against other people. Lovely attitude

I'm not stupid. I'm not barking and I'm not blinkered. Take your personal insults elsewhere, greensleeves.

ffs - I said it made me want to do it not that I actually would do it. I make no apology for the fact that it was a childish reaction but I have to say that I generally try and stay neutral in these sorts of discussion but this has for some reason really irritated me. I will have to go off and try and work out why now. Bugger as if I don't have enough to do today!

Actually yes, you're right SD - bugger this. i don't log on here to upset people but I'm not going to be gagged either. I need a break from MN, and it obviously needs one from me.

Actually GS I am not trying to gag you and as I said my reaction may have been childish but it most definitely was not insulting to your parenting skills which yours was to me.

come back greensleeves!

lbelling people as stu[pid is just unfair. if you're on a high income it is easy to make choices abot clothes, if you're not you buy what Asda sell and what you're given. Its far more important to spend money on the things that really matter- heating, good food. Clothes come last.

Sorry but I've got to laugh at this thread. It's gone from the sublime to the ridiculous from what I can see.

Never put dss in camo tho cos we'd never be able to find him. We dressed him in bright orange/blue for a reason. Me tho I like ex-army trousers cos they are practical and hardwearing and great for hiking or camping.

But then I am barking No problems admitting that. Dont think I'm stupid tho and have quite a high IQ thanks

Never put dss in camo tho cos we'd never be able to find him

PMSL!!!

Greensleeves - it makes me laugh that you're all offended now. I think you'll find it was me you were insulting, quite personally. Now I'm all for freedom of speach and open debate - I don't expect everyone to have the same opions as me and in fact I enjoy reading opposing ones because I might learn something. Having said that I did not attack you personally and it would be quite easy to do so. Perhaps that's why you feel ganged up on, however with opinions like yours you might have to get used to it.

Greensleeves, I said take your personal insults elsewhere, not your opinons. No one's gagging you FFS.

obviously no-one looks at the camouflage clothes the way I have which is that bright orange or blue is actually quite subversive, after all it's not exactly regulation jungle issue is it! I would find camouflage in the proper khaki most unappealing though.....

btw I don't put DS in camouflage stuff anyway as prefer other things. I have spend nearly four years moaning about the awful boys clothes on offer and agree with the zillion others who posted about the negativity of the slogans....however it's allways been a good rule for me never to buy clothing that has writing on it for me or DS!!!

Have been so disgusted this year that I threw our money worries out the window and ordered a little summer wardrobe for DS from Boden, and very nice it is to see him in lovely bright colours; boys can be so beautiful it is a shame to see them in mini adult clothes!

I can't stand all this talk about how you can't dress your children in camouflage because it makes your child look like a "dangerous killing machine" and is "dangerous and destructive "

It just strikes me as bullshit hippy crap but maybe thats because my IQ is below 65!!

alligator - "Never put dss in camo tho cos we'd never be able to find him" - LOL

Greensleeves - you are entitled to your opinion, but it is insulting to generalise that all people who dress their children in camouflage clothes / slogan t-shirts etc. are either:-

(a) intellectually challenged
or

(b) completely barking

I also doubt people think the way I choose to dress my child is "irresponsible and despicable".

If you think that is the case, then fine - personally I think there are far more irresponsible and despicable things in life than dressing DS in a cheeky monkey t-shirt and camouflage-patterned jeans!!!

I just feel that the proliferation of this kind of clothes is another way of forcing our kids to look like adults, so that they'll grow up before it's time and become "consumers" . I don't want this for my kids, that's all.

Come to think of it, everything DS wears turns into camouflage-style pattern within two minutes of his putting it on... admittedly that's down to the artistic swirls of yogurt, sauce and some things that I don't think I want to be able to identify .

true!

Oooh! This kicked off then. Have to say I'm with you all the way Greensleeves. Well perhaps the IQ coment was a little harsh but when people who can't seem to grasp the general social implications involved and really think it's harmless, I think assuming they're thick is perfectly understandable.

And what the hell is wrong with my description of a soldier as an aggressive killing machine? FFS, what do you lot think military training is all about? You learn to be aggressive, shoot guns and aim at people's heads. OK you learn other stuff too like handing out sweets to foreign kids. But there are US and UK soldiers in Iraq now, they're certainly agressive and they're certainly damn well killing people, innocent people, children and familes. One reason it has all gone so spectacularly tits up is that they are so well-trained to lack empathy, see the enemy/foreigners (they get them mixed up) as subhuman, and kill them.

Well, who knew my M&S rant would lead to that