November 12 2010
Cool Kid Fashion Accessory-eesta
So anyway today I was walking down the street and I saw a little kid on his dad’s shoulders. Maybe two years old. Toddler-style. The kid was sporting a kid-sized old timey bowler hat— and stuck in the band of the hat was a playing card. Jack of Spades. The kid was also wearing slick sunglasses, high tops, and a mini-leather bomber jacket– and my first thought was, ‘Wow that kid looks way cool! He looks like he smokes already or something!’
Then I was like, ‘Wait up… The kid isn’t “cool” he doesn’t even know wtf he’s wearing! It’s the dad who is probably cool…’ Then I was like, ‘Wait up… Is that dad cool? Or not cool? It struck me that maybe the dad was trying way too hard to “be cool” by having a extra cool kid on his shoulders. And I thought maybe the dad was a dickhead for buying a velvety kid-sized bowler hat– and having the nerve to stick a playing card in it.’ Like, ‘Dude, why is your kid dressed like a drunk in a pool hall?’
I dunno. The whole thing made me wonder about how young is too young to go way ‘cool’ on your kid. Is there a too young? Like maybe there’s an actual benefit to starting the kid out early on dressing cool? Will the cool dressed kid have a better chance of being ‘cool’ later in life– especially if he or she gets a jump start from before they even know what cool is?
I wouldn’t know because judging from my little kid pictures I was apparently left to my own devices when it came to dressing. I remember wearing my favorite sky blue Puma t-shirt over a thick striped rugby shirt like every day. And I rocked Toughskin high waters and stuff. And I never turned out “cool”. If I had a fashion sense back then would I have a better fashion sense now? Would I be cooler now?
I doubt it.
But I have mixed feelings about going all big on kids fashion. I could see how it’s probably fun for mom’s buying fashionista outfits for a toddler (especially for a girl) but at some point it crosses the line. Past fun. Past funny. Past fashion. I think at some point it crosses over to turning your kid into an actual accessory. Or a thing for showing off $ by dressing them extra expensive. Reflecting directly on the parent instead of the ‘individual’ kid. Once there, then maybe you’ve gone maybe too far. Plus, I always feel like the coolest kids are the kids that look like they dress themselves in the dark. Mix and match with no rhyme or reason and look all f–ked up colorful.
Then again none of this is my business. I don’t know nuttin bout this stuff– but I know it was a little too hot outside for a furry bomber jacket today.
ok bye!
tOdd
18
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tOdd, kids are life themselves, they are the hope we parents have the second we pop them out. All our dreams and hopes go into that little body.
We give them the life we want, the life we missed, the life we want them to have.
So jest if you must,even if we can not fufill our vision. We do the best we can. Even if others think it’s silly.
that dad is a fucking toolbox, guaranteed.
agreed…Fucking Toolbox.If one of my friends showed up with his kid dressed up like that he’d be ridiculed by the group and put to shame……Not the Kid…the dad… and of course not in front of the kid but later on and forever until he got the fuckin point.
hehe, i like the little drawings you’ve been putting into your blog posts.
This will hold us until WE GET SOME NEW CARTOONS ALREADY.
mepball says, “kids stay in cool…”
Using your kid as an accessory isn’t cool. If your kid is still small enough to ride on your shoulders then that kid is too small to be ‘cool’. Sometimes if you are too cool early on in life, you have nowhere to go but down.
It’s like those kids in school who had designer everything. Those kind of kids usually end up with a sense of entitlement. Dress your kid in regular kid clothes. Maybe he was headed to a costume party.
The words “former child star” come to mind here, Nicol. Like the entire cast of “Different Strokes”, Danny Bonaduce, Leif Garrett, Judy Garland….
According to Erikson’s stages of development, kids around 2 to 3 years old should be learning how to make their own decisions.
I never thought about fashion in that sense, but more like: its cold out, of these two coats, which one do you want to wear? Or we are going to the beach, do you want flip flops or sandals? (i.e. Appropriate clothing for the situation)
According to Color Me Beautiful, children choose colors suited to their skin tones automatically. So they are intuitively fashion savy in that sense.
So it would seem that parents need to find that balance: letting kid make their own decisions while ensuring they be appropriately dressed.
Take my word for this. If that kid didn’t want to be wearing what he had on, he would NOT be wearing it. When my daughter was little she would wear NOTHING that showed buttons on it. You would have thought she was born Amish. She threw the biggest hissy fit ever if I tried to have her put on something with buttons.
I agree with letting your kids pick the clothes they want to wear sometimes, but who bought this kid this crazy outfit in the first place. I hope the dad was taking him to a theme party.
It always amuses me when Americans use the term “dickhead” (and “wanker”). I think it is because American television is so sanitised that we assume that the casual swearing of other countries does not exist there.
Seriously, I was watching the Daily Show the other day and they bleeped “asshole”. But the great thing was they only bleeped the “hole” part, as if the “ass” part was perfectly acceptable. (This happened a few times, so it wasn’t just the bleeping guy caught napping).
Any swearing on American TV is on shows like Dexter, where the novelty of using “cuss” words leads them to going over the top and making feel fake.
Cuss on, Todd, cuss on!
An ass is an animal. So is a cock. Both words are acceptable on American TV. But asshole and cocksucker are not. Now you know the rules.
I love the fact that my nieces dress like I do: retarded!
LET FREEDOM RING!!!!!!
Medusa, get over yourself already. We all know how proud you are of your special snowflake, Helicopter.
tOdd, this is what our generation is inflicting on its kids – a 3 year old in an “ironic” t-shirt just screams look at me – I’m so very hip even though I’m now cleaning loaded diapers instead of clubbing till 3am. It’s laughable.
using that logic maybe we should just keep kids in a loin cloth or trash bag.
the dude is obviously rich and spending money on his kid as a fashion accessory.
“Logic”…yeah.
Sometime around 2, my son started to develop his own sense of style that he still adheres to at the age of 4. It is more along the lines that he only will wear jeans refusing to wear say a pair of cords and graphic t-shirts with characters he likes. He also *hates* shirts with buttons of any sort (polos, henleys or button-downs) to the point that he will make comments to me about my own attire or what I put on his baby brother.
I do feel that the kid in question was most likely dressed by someone. Sure, I can see the kid liking the hat but a playing card on it? No way.