As I've mentioned before, Isabella has been the recipient of many adorable outfits. Little white dresses. Overalls. A snowsuit complete with bunny ears. She's even received a pumpkin costume for Halloween (although I have another costume idea up my sleeve). But a few weeks ago she received a pair of pants the rear of which is pictured below from a friend of Rich's dad.
So I'm going to go on record and say that I hate these pants. I know. I'm ungrateful. I'm inconsiderate. And I'm probably in the minority too. You probably think they're, well, cute. But I have never been a fan of the "inappropriate message on the ass cheeks of pants/shorts/skirts" that seems to be all the rage in girls' clothing. To me, these messages spattered across the butt area of girls' clothing sends an overtly sexualized message. Do I want some pervert staring at my 5 or 10 or 15 year old daughter's ass in a few years, checking out the message Target or Macy's decided would be cool to put there? Hell no. And does anyone remember this controversary from a few years ago?
Now, I know Isabella is a baby. No one is going to stare inappropriately at her butt (and after seeing what comes out of there, trust me, no one would want to). But have you been in the children's clothing departments of any stores lately? The clothes marketed toward little girls seem to be designed to outfit the world's tiniest little hookers. Seriously, people. I've seen tiny miniskirts, half shirts, and halter tops, in sizes to fit first graders. And a trip to the elementary school where my husband taught last year confirmed that little girls indeed were sporting clothing best left for the pre-Richard Gere makeover of Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman. And clothing maufacturers are to blame (and of course, so are the parents of the kids, who are presumably seeing fit to dress their girls like the Pussycat Dolls).
So back to Ella's pants. I don't think I'm going to dress her in these. I already know she's a cutie. I don't need someone to read about it on the diaper-covered cheeks of her rear end.
Now, my grandma has a whole other set of ideas on what makes clothing inappropriate for babies. In her eyes, anything other than a long-sleeved onesie with feet is completely unnecessary for Isabella to wear, and dressing her in anything but borders on child endangerment. You see, grandma believes that babies are most comfortable in these onesies. The aformentioned overalls? Too scratchy and too bunchy around her neck. Dresses or pants or t-shirts? Well, Ella is likely to freeze to death, even though we've had some really warm temperatures here in the past few weeks. And allowing her hands to roam free of the undershirts with mitten guards, designed to keep her from scratching herself (and me)? Well, that's just unconscionable.
One day last week, I dressed Isabella in an adorable little brown and white striped outfit that her Aunt Karrie gave her. Grandma came over to see Isabella, and watched her while I took a walk. When I came back, the outfit was off and she had a onesie on. And the reason given for the outfit change? Apparently she was changing a diaper and didn't want it to get dirty. Uh-huh.
So now I present to you two outfits that would cause grandma to have a coronary if she came over and saw Isabella wearing them. They are short-sleeved! Gasp! Boo! Hiss! And, they don't have feet on the bottom. Hideous!
However, I love them, and think she looks pretty darn cute to boot. Now, you'll have to excuse me while I quickly bundle Ella up in 14 layers. Grandma's on her way over.
See, this outfit's not so bad. It's helping me perfect my Riverdance posture.
The party is, indeed, at my crib. Last night, it was from 12:25am until 4:45am. Wanna come over and play?
I HATE pants/skirts with logos/statments (what's with all the /?) painted on them - for girls AND boys. Why is it necessary to draw attention to your ass? Plenty of people seem plenty good making asses of themselves without the aid of their butt-printed clothing as it is. So tacky and so inappropriate. I'm also not a fan of dressing little or young girls like they're 10-20 years olders than they actually are. Why start them early on the path to fussing over their appearance and their sex appeal? SEX APPEAL, people. Why does a 6, 10 or 15 year old need SEX APPEAL? This makes me want to scrub their faces and buy them jelly shoes.
You may as well play "Baby Got Back" as a lullaby. Hey, wait. That's actually kinda funny.
Oh my... she looks SO precious!!! in whatever she's wearing! I don't like the writing-on-ass-wear, myself.
Over the summer I saw a girl filling her car at the gas station, wearing short-short jersey shorts.... with RUTGERS plastered across the ass. Classy. NOT!
What a face! OMG...she is SOOOO cute! Love those little t-shirts, they are WAY kewl!
I am agog and aghast that the ass-print pants have made it all the way down to the little ones!
I agree...some of the babies clothes now days are just over the top. I really prefer to dress my girls in cute clothes that are "hip" but, conservative. I like the designers Flowers by Zoe for girls. And, I found a Holiday dress by Biscotti, that can be worn throughout all of the holidays!
You know, I was going to go into how much I hate the ridiculous statements on girls' women's clothing. But was then distracted by the absurd cuteness of your daughter in those outfits.
Ella is just adorable!
I, too, have always wondered why adults would want to draw attention to the width of their ass with a 10-letter word spread across their shorts/pants/whatever.
You're wise in keeping that stuff off of Ella. Don't give her any ideas for when she's older.
Well, at least it doesn't say "Juicy" on it...
And the "Video killed..." pic is the cutest freakin thing I have seen since, well, Aug 22nd.
OMG she is so adorable. I agree that the little girls clothing is waaayyyy too hootchie mama-ish. I have a 9 year old and it is hard to find appropriate clothes that doesn't make her look like a little harlot.
Kristi, she is adorable!! I like your shirts, but I agree with grandma about onesies. If I were a baby, I would want nothing else! But not the footed ones unless it's winter.
My daughter calls most little girls things "hoochie-mama" clothes, and her girls do not wear them, thank Heaven!
I to am absolutely disgusted with the styles of clothing for girls. I went to get the babe a pair of girl khaki's and all I found were low rider flairs for a freakin' 9 month old...are you kidding me?
We live in a overly sexual society. Yes, I know that. But does it have to trickle down into infant clothing?
OMG i sooo agree with what you said about the hooker outfits lol... but where did you get the Video one... that rocks... but before we let anyone buy something for Lorelei we told that if it looked like something a hooker would wear it was going back... or on ebay lol...
I too find the printing on the butt disturbing. Why do that on infant-sized clothing? Yes, let's start sexualizing them from birth!
Recently I was browsing eBay for baby clothing and came across a 0-3 month bikini about which the seller wrote, "will turn heads at the beach!", which I found most disturbing.
Those pictures are adorable. I love the stiff arms. Heh.