children's clothes with skulls on...WHY?

[sausagepastie]

I can't understand it - it's horrible, isn't it? Or is it just me being old fashioned?

The last thing I want is an image of a skull on my son's clothes.

DS1 loves all his skull clothes.

DS2 has a black and white all over print of skull and crossbones on his poshbugs footmuff. I've had alot of positive comments about it, and have heard people commenting to each other about how much they like it.

My DS1 is barely 4 and picked a cardi out with skulls on it. To him it just means pirates!!

I quite like them.

I think that you are over thinking this. It's not a symbol of rebellion really and even if it was a 2 year old isn't going to care less. It's more of a cute statement.

try telling that to a 14yo in a skull hoodie

aww

I don't have a problem with skulls and crossbones on boy's clothing. I'm just happy to have some boy's wear on display. We have to put up with rack after rack of pink putresence for the girls and a couple of drab sludge colour racks for the boys shoved in a corner.
I went for some pjs the other day in John Lewis - six racks of girls pjs - two racks for boys and a very poor size selection.
I don't object to the pirate stuff cos it tends to be brightly coloured - a nice change from camo/navy/khaki/sludge selection buyers seem to think mum's want their sons in.
I also object mightily to all those "cute" phrases they put on t-shirts - "little monster" "monkey" "mischief" ho, ho, bleedin' ho...
Yes pirates are murdering thieves but then soldiers kill people and no-one objects to military jackets. Gladiators slaughtered people and endangered species but no-one is shrieking for sandals to be banned.
If you don't like the skulls don't buy the clothes.

I think they're quite cool.

dd 3.5 doesn't have any skull stuff but does wear black. i think it really suits her.

My DS has a really cute Gap sweater with a scull on the front. Its pretty cute and not at all morbid.

We encourage DS and DD to goth it up as much as possible. Anything that gives them more of a punk attitude in encouraged in my house.

The last thing I want for my kids is some sanitised childhood.

Yes agree with OP and while DSs were small nothing of that sort crossed our door.

However, they've only gone and grown their own minds and now love anything that is dark and skullish however much I tell them that it is not nice and 'death is not cool'.

Whilst I continue to maintain my "not buying" stance - other people bloody well sneak them in under the xmas tree and such like.

Maybe we should be thankfull it's just clothes, not something more permanent

I won't buy them. They're hideous.

I don't mind them at all, my son loves anything with skulls, snakes, pirates, I don't really see the problem

ahoy there!!

my dd has a red t shirt, skull and crossbones pattern, it's great on her. She has stripey leggins, and we both love Jack sparrow type piracy! If she was a boy and wanted to wear, at age 7, some sort of grotesque thing avec gore and blood type skulls, I wouldn't like that tho.

I try to keep her tomboyish look in keeping with her age, as I do with her occasional leanings towards girl's tops.

Erm, rock mum over here. I can understand the concerns some mums have - have them myself tbh. But as I wear clothes that have skulls on them how am I going to stop my son? As long as they aren't depicting violence towards anyone it's ok imnsho.

BTW nice tat zazen

MySonWillRebelAndBecomeARightWingChristianFundamentalistAsHe'sGotNowhereElseToGoTiggaxx

'The last thing I want for my kids is some sanitised childhood'

That's nice! I don't pretend for a minute that my children's childhood is anywhere near sanitised, and would appreciate it if you didn't imply it.

I couldn't agree more! Horrible, and totally inappropriate. I don't care if that makes me old-fashioned either...

I hate skulls too - the ones that look like biker tattoos rather than pirate flag ones. Really ugly, innapropriate and imo quite chavvy.

radiohelen - good point about th gladiators! mind you my DH would happily ban sandals just cos he hates them

uggggh the whole 'nightmare before christmas' brand (it's quite a big brand now) adds a whole new element, it's one of those people-want-to-be-individual-so they-just-go-for-a-different-mass-produced-image things. you'd be surprised how many people wear it without even having seen the film!

Aaaand breathe.

suppose this isn't suitable for little ones either

My DCs loved it and the books when they were little

I loved funny bones when I was little, and loved biology so as a kid skulls weren't morbid at all, they were fascinating, and both DH and grew up and went into jobs involving human anatomy.

I wonder if the people who think skulls are so morbid and inappropriate are the same people who would think kids shouldn't go to funerals and should be told that dead pets have gone to live on farms?

what's so bad and scary about bones anyway? they keep us from being piles of mush on the floor

theshriekingharpy swallows and amazons are just WRONG!! DH and I cannot read it (or other Arthur Ransom) out loud without sniggering!