Underwear strikes again, or something like that

[mara]

I am reliably informed (by my husband) that my mother-in-law is incredibly upset that my son has both "boy's" underwear and "girl's" underwear. She's sure that his classmates are going to see his underwear and tease him for wearing girl's underwear.

In his words: "She's very upset about it and it's all your fault." (Said ironically, I should note.)

My response to my husband was "Yes. Yes, it is my fault. It's also the Dora underwear that got him to actually wear underwear, so she can kiss my ass."

Good grief. There are so many things wrong here, I'm not sure where to start!

As a friend of mine noted (re: her son wearing his sister's nail polish), if the kids are going to tease him about this, maybe we should tell them not to tease rather than criticizing his taste in underwear!!!

Seriously, we got to the underwear aisle and the boys' stuff was almost all superheroes he didn't know and movies he hadn't seen. I did find him some Thomas the Tank Engine and eventually Diego (who he loves), but when asked what he wanted on his underwear, he asked for Dora and Kai Lan. Obviously both of those only come in girl's styles, because no boys like Dora or Kai Lan.

And last, but not least, my son is four years old! When it comes to fit, it really doesn't matter if he wears boy's or girl's underwear, y'know!

Comments

[kass]

I can so totally relate. Our almost-four-year-old son adores Dora and Kai-Lan too! His favorite PJs are the Dora ones, which have little ruffles on them, which discomfits his grandparents a fair amount. *wry grin*

[mara]

My son would adore Dora PJs! Maybe I'll head over to the girls' section and get some for him. My mother-in-law will probably have a heart attack, but he'll be happy.

[lovepeaceohana]

I'm always underwhelmed by marketer's expectations of viewer demographics - it's so disappointing to never find Merida on boys' clothes, or Jessie (from Toy Story) or the Black Widow even in an ensemble graphic!

So with you on teaching children not to tease, rather than being critical of the child being teased, and asking them to change so as not to get teased. If it isn't one thing it'll just be another, after all, unless we teach them not to tease, period. I don't see as that's so difficult to understand.

[mara]

Exactly! Teach all the kids not to tease and boom! problem solved.

And yes, marketers are MORONS. I'm always "amused" when looking at Avengers and Justice League merchandise marketed to boys and somehow Wonder Woman and Black Widow have disappeared. My daughter went through a Wonder Woman phase a while ago, but every time I tried to find her a t-shirt or underwear it was all the guys. Alas, my daughter has already learned the lesson that superheroes aren't for her :(