Provacative clothing for ............ children?

pro·voc·a·tive /prəˈvɒkətɪv/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[pruh-vok-uh-tiv] adjective

1.	tending or serving to provoke;

click photo to enlarge

I would expect a C-average, pimple faced college freshmen to wear something like this during his first semester in the dorm.

I can see that.....

But what I cannot comprehend is what mother would intentionally purchase or allow her little boy to wear this shirt?

If you can't read it it says:

"i hate you
you are an idiot
so ugly
you stink
i still hate you
your band sucks
i want to smack you in the face
sarcasm helps keep you
from telling people
what you really think of them"

click photo to enlarge

Eight year old boys would love this shirt,
mothers, (unless they have the mentality of an eight year old), should not.

This is a youth size. You can see from the photo that it is indeed small. Some company in California obviously has a white trash marketing niche for children's shirts with logos such as these.

Where did I get this shirt? Well, divorce is bad for a number of reasons. Having the ex-wife dress the children in things like this is just one of them.

Ed just moved and I was helping him out by taking all the dirty laundry and washing it. When I was folding the clothes I found this.

I knew it couldn't have come from Ed's batch of clothes.

Ed's daughter says it belongs to her 12 year old brother. But from the looks of how small it is, I think it belongs to the 8 year old. Ed says he thinks the 8 year old was wearing it.

I asked Ed what sort of message she was trying to give her sons by buying these clothes, I think he hit the nail on the head.

"Not sure. Probably speaking toward regaining the stupid disaffected twenty-something years she feels she missed."





Yup.

These are the sorts of things I think when I see 9th graders walk in to the classroom with sad clothes I KNOW their mothers bought for them.

Pronunciation: \di-ˈsərn-mənt, -ˈzərn-\

Function: noun

Discernment: a power to see what is not evident to the average mind.

Just because it's on a display rack or in a youth size doesn't mean that it's good for your kids to wear, people!

Have some ability to discern good choices from bad ones. I want my son to be an asshole
when he grows up!

I was wondering if I was just a little too discerning.

So, I asked a co-worker what she thought. She teaches business and is classy, contemporary and a very modern woman. Her immediate thought:

"That's real nice. It reminded me of a church sign I saw years ago.

"Sarcasm is the language of the devil."

You should have your own t-shirt made and give it to Ed's son."

That's an idea Heather, but that's little extreme. I would rather remark upon the world-wide-web. (but I like that you included sarcasm in your assessment! Nice touch!)

So then she said,

"You can sew. Fix it to put on your dog"

So then I asked some of my students who are 10th graders this year (15-16 years old).

Walter: The 15 year old "lady's man":

" i would give it to ma newborn if i had one...lol
its perfect... haha i like wat it says in the back lol"

You know, if I wasn't concerned with looking trashy, I wouldn't protest a newborn wearing it. They can't read and wouldn't get some depraved sense of taste from wearing it.

Alex: Fifteen year old girl and A+ student:

"that shirt is uuberr funny!
i love it!
but i dont think a kid should have it!"

Makes sense, a 15 year old boy has the brain of an 8 year old boy. And a 15 year old girl has many years of maturity on any boy the same age.

I asked some of my ex-students who have gone off to college:

John (age 20) said,

for a little boy? are we producing a cynic? :]

***********************

So the shirt goes back to the mother's house. She'll read this. She will probably comment somewhere. But I don't care. These are things she obviously didn't learn from her mother and I doubt she'll learn them now. If she likes in-your-face hateful clothing for her children, she can go on liking it. I don't. Maybe she'll dress her boys decently when we pick them up to come home in the future.

Maybe not.