I’ve also seen ‘My kid knocked up your honor student.’ Which is funny, if obnoxious.
My son had some problems last year and suggested that I scrape off my ‘my son s in the Navy’ sticker in favor of a ‘My son is inmate of the month at the City Jail.’ Obnoxious, but funny.
I like obnoxious jokes, if they are amusing. Really, funny covers a multitude of sins.
But the t-shirt in my OP is just obnoxious, with no funny at all.
I also noticed the similarity to the ‘white feathers’ of WWI. I’m not sure what it says about our culture that we put today’s white feather on our little children and let them deliver the message…
I also really hate the impression that these t-shirts might give to people who don’t know many military people. The ones I know all think those shirts are ridiculous and rude.
Sounds like some of America is heading further into the “Starship Troopers” universe.
Two classes of people, those who fight, and those who were worthless.
I’ve seen bumper stickers proclaiming that the driver was a prisoner of war. In fact, here in NY, there are special license plates that say this, and I always think…jeez, you got captured. Why are you proud of that?
Yeah, I’ve got a couple of problems with that shirt in the OP. I knew plenty of army wives, and they ran the gamut to living saints to “I think I understand why your husband volunteered to extend in Iraq.” Marriage to those creatures strikes me as worse than death. I mean, you don’t have to live with death. I can’t see how it would be much different in the Navy.
And any military wife of any branch worth her salt knows that as tough as she might have it–and I agree that it’s pretty damned tough at times–her husband has it far worse. It’s just a matter of degree. So no, whoever wears that shirt is pretty much full of shit.
The “Student of the Month” things are even worse, because I’ve heard from someone who works at an elementary school that some of them now require every single student to get that at least once.
YMMV, and I’m not slamming you specifically, but I’ve been in the military, my parents were/are in the military, my uncle fought in Vietnam, my grandfather commanded US Army forces against Rommel’s men in North Africa, etc., and I feel nothing but an intense desire to roll my eyes right out of my head when I see a “My _____ is in the _______” sticker. Of course, it’s a little different in San Diego, where just about everyone knows at least a handful of sailors and/or Marines, but most don’t feel the need to advertise it. I understand that it may be different in Yorktown, VA.
I was born and raised in San Diego, actually. And have lived there in adulthood, too. We’ve been in Virginia for 7 years, but were stationed in San Diego for 8 years before that.
Anyway, I respect your difference of opinion on this – the fact that these things don’t bother me doesn’t mean they can’t bother you. It’s a taste issue and there’s no accounting for that. There are probably plenty of things you like (or at least tolerate) which set my teeth on edge.
All that said, I suspect the difference is that this particular sticker honors my son. I did 6 years active duty myself, and my husband did 26… we never had Navy signage on our cars, or anywhere else. But when our boy went in, I got my sticker – and my husband wanted one too, even though he had never before had any kind of a sticker on any car he’d ever owned.
We both have a “Sweet Briar Parent” sticker, too, as I said, even though we neither of us ever had a sticker with our own alma maters… So maybe it’s a parent thing.
Or maye it’s just an us thing – as I said, there’s no accounting for tastes.
Why, then, does Congress mandate that there be pay for it? Yes, I know the sponsor (i.e., the Sailor) gets the pay but that’s predicated on having the dependent family member. FWIW: the group that reviews military pay and compensation every four years or so continues to recommend fixing that stupid pay and allowances system to include dropping the differential between “with dependents” and “without dependents” rates. Of course, that would be political suicide if Congress ever followed the recommendation.
