Boys Clothing-What's with all the skulls?

My boys will be 4 in January and wear either a 5T for shirts or boys XS. It seems like everywhere I go for fall clothing, the majority of the long sleeve shirts (and even sweaters!)have skulls on them. They are taking their school pictures this week so I was at Target trying to find something neutral for them to wear. Every time I seen something I liked, as soon as I pulled it out, it had a skull on it. :crazy: Could you imagine the look on the photographers face if I decided to go with those. :shok:

At least this "trend" has not made it's way over to the boys section and I was able to find some nice shirts for them.

Has anyone else noticed this?

 

I haven't... but frankly the only things I get for DS now are the plain shirts I can find at old navy or kohl's, I find very cute patterns for DD but it's always sports or ugly stuff for boys, drives me nuts!

 

That's funny - up here it's all the girls' stuff that has skulls on it. Usually pink skulls. With bows. But still skulls. ardon:

Yesterday I was at the Calgary Baby & Tot show with my doula association and at the exhibit hall next to us was the Tattoo & Alternative Lifestyle show. Talk about juxtaposition. :laughing: The toddlers going to the tattoo show (with their parents) were wearing a lot of skulls, had mohawks and tons of other I'm-a-child-of-a-punk-rocker paraphernalia.

 

I love the skulls! Jack has had skulls on clothing since he was an infant. And guitars. I'm not big on puppies and baby blue.

 

Boys clothes in general is just so limited compared to girls. I like the skulls, it's the sports stuff that I can't stand. People have given me a few baby outfits that say "rookie" :bad:

 

I've seen it everywhere and I love it! Being so near the coast (and Blackbeard and his treasure) and being in the middle of Pirate country, skully's are huge. I actually bought some hoodies from the boys department the other day because they were all skullied out.

 

I love the skulls too. :wub:

 

Not a fan of the skulls. I had noticed it more in girls clothing, rather than boys. Just not my taste so I haven't bought any for the kids.

 

We love the skulls here, too! We have lots of pirate-wannabe's in our house, so they adore wearing clothes with skulls and Jolly Rogers.

 

I agree. I don't mind the skulls (I actually saw a pink dress advertised on zulily with little gray skulls on it and then had to stop myself because my DD is not really a dress girl, regardless of the pattern) ..but the endless sports, construction equipment outfits drive me insane. But I do freely admit that my son is rocking Star Wars shirts and has a Pink Floyd shirt that he calls his "Dark Side of the Moon" shirt. I think my brother cried tears of absolute joy when I told him that.

 

I don't care for skulls either. I guess I don't understand the point. I mostly see an abundance of sports and trucks/cars clothing. Luckily, we tend to buy some of each because the boys like it. What I can't stand is the clothing -- which tends to be younger -- that says things like "Mommy's Hero" or "Daddy's Champ" etc. I don't know why. I just can't stand it. If we're given that stuff as gifts, I'll usually use it because I'm grateful, but I wouldn't pick it out myself.

 

I don't like skulls. This year N's backpack was from the Gap and it was a dinosaur theme. On the inside where you write the students name, was a skull. It did not match the outside theme at all. So weird.

 

I'm not anti skull but there came a point when I stopped buying shirts with designs on them because I wanted a picture of my son in something that did not have a bear, truck, sports figure, pirate theme, on it. Of course he does have a shirt from Los Alamos, NM that says "Learn your ABCs" with A=Atomic Energy, B=Biological Agents, and C= Chemical agents." I am ok with nerdy shirts.

Another lesson learned is that at some point (age depends on kid), your child starts to have a strong opinion on what they want to wear. When my son started asking for certain things, I knew it was time to give up my likes and let him be his own person. Just something to consider. We were fortunate it didn't happen until this year.

 

Ditto.


And Nancy, I know you can appreciate this too- Jason is completely in love with Charlie Brown (J calls him "Charlie Brownie :wub: )and all things Peanuts. I love that he loves Peanuts!

 

I don't mind skulls. ardon: One of my DDs has a halloween shirt with a pink skull and bow on it. I think its cute. What IS starting to bother me is the character stuff that my girls want to wear. I don't want them to be walking billboards (except Hello Kitty- I heart HK so they can wear her stuff :wub.

 

Ditto this. So far we've managed to avoid Disney, Looney Tunes and the like, but I'm sure it's just a matter of time before they're gifted a character outfit.

 

Gina, you've raised a young man with exquisite taste :wub: I love the fact that kids are into Charlie Brown and the gang. Luke is always happy to rock something with a Peanuts character on it!

 

I'm not a fan of the skull shirts either. The only time I bought something with it on it was when we were going to the beach and it was the only UV/rashguard shirt I could find at the time. Otherwise I steer clear of the skull stuff. To me such clothes are trying to imply that my little toddlers are bad ***** or something, which just seems ridiculous on a 2 year old IMO. However, we do buy lots of shirts with guitars on them because they are our little rock stars, LOL.

 

Oh my gosh, I HATE character stuff!! The shoes, the shirts, - I try to never buy them. I can deal with the Superhero ones because some of those are vintage looking and cute, but that's it. Luckily, the grandparents don't like them either - so we rarely have them!

 

I don't mind the skulls at all, Luke has a few shirts with skulls on them. Really, really, REALLY do not like any of the licensed character stuff though. :bad: Lila does have one Tinkerbell shirt that is cute, but other than that, yuck.

 

I'm just going to put this out there....I may get bashed but so be it....

I have a friend online who absolutely hated all things character/licensed for her kids. She never bought them anything like that even if they begged and begged. Everything they wore was usually boutique style.

She lost her dd at about 3 yrs old in an extremely tragic accident. It made her radically change her thinking, realizing that the little things (letting them wear tinkerbell, or bob the builder, or thomas...etc) was so far from being a big deal!! That letting them get dirty was just letting them be kids. After her dd's funeral, she went out and bought her son (who was 4) the clothes that he had been wanting, with all the little characters and flashing lights on shoes..etc that she never used to get for them.

I realize as adults we may hate the marketing, hate the way it's advertised...etc. But really, is it a big deal? My kids love their character clothing. I have so many thomas shirts (from 2 boys) that Liam could wear thomas probably every day! :lol: But they love it, and it doesn't cost much more than a plain striped shirt, and it makes them OH so happy to wear it...so I buy it!

I buy a few nicer/regular shirts for church, or for good wear. But if they see a Minnie Mouse shirt they love, or a pair of flashy fire engine shoes and they need runners, I buy that for them too

 

No, it isn't a big deal. The shirts that my guys have that have Spiderman or Batman or Lightening McQueen or Toy Story characters are always fun for them to wear. I buy them a shirt if it is something they want and I'm clothes shopping, but I don't go out of my way to buy them character stuff just because it is available. Today Sullivan has a black shirt on with a Jolly Roger and when Finley saw it, he said, "Do I get to wear a pirate shirt?" And I said, not today (he just had a white thermal shirt that had a tiny little wolf emblem on the chest), he started to get upset and I said, "But, you have this sneaky little wolf right here who is hiding and any time someone touches your shirt today, he might howl at them." I then touched his shirt and howled a few times - and he was laughing so hard and so excited about his "wolf" shirt. Just as excited as he's ever been about a Spiderman shirt, etc. Sometimes it isn't "what" the item is, but how it is presented.

And, getting dirty? Isn't that just part of being a kid? :laughing: I'm always surprised by the people who won't let their kids play in the rain, have a sand box, wrestle in the grass, etc. I don't get that. :unknw:

 

I will say that as a parent to slightly older kids, I don't mind the character shirts as much. When we get invited to bday parties I ask my kids what shirts their friends where or what their backpack is to have a clue on present the child might like. Also, in school it's sometimes has given my kids a clue on what to talk to a child about to perhaps find a friend. Timothy is now friends with a boy because they both figured out how much they like Mario games because of shirts. This boy is mildly autistic (I think, at least very quirky and pulled out of class for some special ed.) so Timothy being able to see what this boy liked because of his shirt. It was a huge help for everyone involved.

I think what I dislike is when themes get over-done. Like skulls being everywhere. Really, just a nice variety to pick from is good. I find I have to get a shirt here and another shirt there to have variety. Timothy is not into the pirate/skull thing. I have found some tie-dye and nature/animal shirts at Landsend. Grandma sent some Bowser (from Mario) shirts that totally made Timothy's day. He also like the guitar stuff and his shirts with his school on them.

Marissa

 

Wait, clothes aren't supposed to get dirty? I've been doing it wrong for 35+ years! :lol:

 

No, it isn't a really big deal. But, my kids have never asked for them either. I don't tend to take my kids clothes shopping (well, not the little ones), most of their stuff I order online or I shop for by myself. So, I don't think they are deprived by not having a lot of characters on their clothes. ardon: Lila is happy as long as she has sparkly things to choose from & Luke could not possibly care less what he is wearing. And I never buy them anything to wear that they can't play & get dirty in.

I am sorry for your friend's loss, though. Definitely every parent's worst nightmare.

 

That was the point I was trying to make. It seems like every store I went to, the majority of the clothing had skulls on them. I just needed non themed nice shirts for picture day that would not cost a lot of $$.

 

Seriously, of all the thins I'd regret if one of my children tragically died, what clothes I bought for them would be low on the list. And if we go through life thinking we should let our kids do what they want because they might die, then where is the line? Junk food because it's not a big deal and they might die and not have had enough McDonalds? I'll stick with everything in moderation and trying to insure my kids have a happy, healthy life.

 

I totally understand. It reminds me of a few years ago when everything went punk rockish for a while for girls. Sarah wasn't into it and I just wanted some nice-looking clothes for her.

For Timothy's pictures, he's usually just worn a plain polo type shirt. The non-themed shirts just seem to photograph better. I've had good luck at Children's Place getting the plainer polo-type shirts (Timothy uses them for church).

And I let my children wear whatever they want, except for picture days. They know those are the days that mom picks the clothes and it's really not up for discussion. Past that, as long as it's weather appropriate, I don't care.

Marissa

 

I think her idea/point was sometimes she didn't let her kids have a say, do what they wanted, make choices (and we're not talking about things that would hurt them or make them sick), and she realized that maybe she should have, should have been a little more flexible, and let them make more "little" choices.

I didn't go overboard and say every kid should have all character clothing either I'm all for moderation. I just wanted to point out that, in the grand scheme of things, if your kid chooses a Buzz Lightyear shirt once in awhile, maybe let them I'm not real big on the skulls either, but my son has a skull hoodie that is so comfy I just overlook the skulls...it was a gift, but he likes it cause it's comfy.

 

All three of my kids like the skulls and the guitars. My boys also like anything Boston sports related, or skateboarding related. Meghan likes flamingos, kitties, puppies, fairies, peace signs, Justin Bieber or Big Time Rush.

 

My SIL doesn't let her kids get dirty. She does a lot more laundry than I do.

I love the way Henry's eyes light up when he sees his Elmo clothes. It's a little thing but it makes him so happy. I am also happy he still lets me pick out his clothes.

 

ditto this, too! can't stand all the superman/batman crap. but i do loves me some hk! and my boys like her, too, since they don't know that they aren't "supposed to" yet. but dh would go nuts if i let them wear hello kitty stuff, lol (they do have some hk lunch boxes that they use sometimes, though!).

i don't love the skulls, but we are big music and sports fan so we love anything w/those on it (the boys are named after a sports hero and a rock star). they far prefer clothes w/"stuff" on it than plain.

~~jl

 

I'm to the point now where I will buy anything if it doesn't have sports on it! I'm so sick of footballs!!

I have to admit I bought a little onesie for the baby with skulls on it. And thankfully this year Carter's has a lot of stuff with guitars, I think I bought pretty much the whole collection! I know I have a few that say "Mommy's/Daddy's Rock Star" on them and they are adorable. I also like the more vintage style character shirts that Old Navy has. My twins have a bunch of those, and some of them I wish they had in my size!!