Today is St. Nicholas day here in Germany. In the US, this day sort of got squashed up into Christmas. This is the day here where St. Nicholas leaves things in the children’s boots overnight, or shows up with his buddy Ruprecht to give the good kids nice things (or for Ruprecht to handle the baddies with a switch or lump of coal.)
Mrs. Furd called me at work yesterday to ask me to pick up a dress for Furdette on the way home. It seems Furdette had been making a gift to leave in her boot for St. Nicholas (her idea) and was talking to herself about how she hoped he would bring her a dress. Furdette loves to wear dresses, but only had one winter dress that would fit. She is growing like a weed, and grows out of things just incredibly fast.
After I got done with work, and got out of my doctor’s appointment, the only place still open was Wal Marts. Well, it doesn’t have to be an expensive dress. It is more or less a stocking stuffer, after all. Fine. Wal Mart’s it is.
So, I go in and find the children’s clothing and start looking for a dress for a little girl.
Holy shit! I’m looking for a dress for a little girl - not dresses for fully grown midget hookers. Mini skirts, slashed blue jeans, blouses with deep V-Necks and ruffles. Jesus Christ. What in hell is going on here? Is the store manager a child molester or is his wife just a small sized prostitute who has trouble finding clothes?
I could not believe the shit they had for sale for little girls. I shit you not, a LEATHER mini skirt with a zipper up the side and a tag that said “4 to 5 year olds.”
Fuzzy-wuzzy mini jackets that don’t button down the front like ones you see whores wearing on TV when the cops in the police shows go poking around the bad part of town in winter.
I looked for the better part of an hour (and was beginning to be worried about someone accusing me of being a pervert,) when I finally found A winter dress for real little girls (instead of tarted up miniature sluts.) One model of dress, in two colors. Pink and blue. Tucked in between fuzzy sweaters with a wide mesh like floozies wear when they want you to see what color bra they are wearing. I almost didn’t buy it, though, because it was sleeveless and obviously intended to be worn with a matching sweater. I am a stubborn cuss, though, and finally found the matching sweaters mixed in with a bunch of crap two racks away from the dress.
What in hell is going on in the world? Perverts all over the place going after little girls, and the only clothes you can get for them makes them look like a child molesters dream.
Furdette was thrilled with her pink dress and sweater with the big daisy on the front this morning. Micro Furd got a play tractor made of metal - I like to get things that don’t break too easy.
Mrs. Smegma and I have two Smeglets, a three year old boy and an eight year old girl.
I’m no longer surprised at the appalling crap that gets marketed to little girls, but as a parent, I will not buy it. I also make it a point to avoid stores that offend my sense of decency. I’m generally pretty easy-going, but seeing clothes designed to tart up pre-pubescent children just creeps me out.
Mrs. Furd normally takes care of the clothes buying, so I guess I am a little sheltered in that respect.
I will tell you one thing that has always freaked me out over here, though. In the city I work in, there are several sex shops scattered around. Magazines and toys and stuff. Right next to about half of them is a store for children’s clothing. I’ve got nothing against the stores themselves although I personally would put them somewhere else. It is just really freaky to be walking along the street, and looking in the store windows. Bookstore, hobby shop, office supply store, take out pizza place, sex shop (open crotch underwear on a dummy, whips, magazines, handcuffs, funky plastic gadgets, etc.) children’s clothing store (leotards, christening dresses, frilly little girl’s clothes, etc.)
Weird.
Our local mall has replaced pretty much all womens’ clothing stores with what my wife and I refer to as “Skank Shops”. You walk in, they hose you down with a special hose, and you walk out thinking you look like Christina Agalala. She has lamented lately that it’s very difficult to even find grown-up clothes there, as they assume that you’re either 90 years old you you want you navel hanging out all the time.
No, you’re not the only one who’s offended. A couple of days after we found out the impending Sprout was to be a boy, we were in Walmart. We hadn’t really had a gender preference, but when we walked by the “girls’” clothing, we both said “I’m glad he’s going to be a boy!” I think if my next child is a girl, I’m going to have to shop for her in the boys’ section. Of course, that wouldn’t help if she likes dresses.
To be honest, most of the kids’ clothes come from second hand shops. They’ve been presorted (so to speak) from the crap I’ve seen in the regular stores.
And the shoes!!! It’s bad enough that grown women can’t find a pair of shoes that don’t have 5 inch heels, but high heel shoes and big, honking clonky shoes for little girls?!? When I was a little girl, I seem to recall, oh, maybe RUNNING AND PLAYING a little bit. I guess if the kids never leave the couch, 5 pounds of shoe on each foot won’t make that much of a difference. :rolleyes:
(FWIW, I have read that one way to make your little girl a target for pedophiles is to dress her way beyond her years - ie, a tarted up miniature slut.)
Selling that stuff is bad enough, but what makes me sick is that people actually buy this stuff for their kids. I was at a youth soccer dinner last year and one of my daughters teammates was wearing something terribly inappropriate for an 11 year old. We were talking to the girls mother and even she acted disgusted over her daughters appearance. But, “That’s all she’ll wear.” was her excuse.
HELLO!!! Who’s the parent? Who’s in control?
My daughter and I were discussing this very topic last night - well, perhaps not the very topic as we don’t know the Furds…
If you’ve been taking notes, you know my Perfect Child[sup]TM[/sup] is 17. She does volunteer work with kids, and she works at a roller rink, so she deals with kids there too. She is appalled at the outfits some of the little girls wear. And, no, it’s not just responding as she thinks I want her to respond - she broached the subject herself. Her comments were to the effect of “Why aren’t little girls allowed to be little girls any longer?”
I weep for the kids because their parents lack spines and judgement. Mom and Dad aren’t supposed to be their kids’ friends - they’re supposed to teach and guide and mold responsible future citizens. GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHH!
Spot on. I can be friendly with my kids, but I am still responsible for seeing that they learn what is right. If the kid gets mad and says I’m not her friend anymore, well, so be it. I’d rather my children not like me (or, rather, be mad at me sometimes) than to grow up spoiled and ruin their lives because failed I them as a parent by trying to be their friend. If things work right, we can be friends when they are grown. Right now, they need parents and have other children as friends - and grandparents to spoil them for balance.
I drive by a college campus on my way home from work and I see so many of the femal students in these ridiculous clonky-heeled monstrosities. Unless the look you’re going for is walking like a newborn horse, you’re not doing much.
My neice is 9 and she dresses hip, but not slutty. She wears embroidered jeans and T-shirts with hearts and stuff on them. There is stuff out there for them, but you have to just say “blow me” to the trashy stuff. My friend’s 15-year old daughter, on the other hand, dresses like a slut. I hope my little Sweetie doesn’t go down that road.
… “And all the little Hos in Ho-ville were delighted…”
Yeah.
I hear you, brother. I tried to buy one of my cousins a dress, once, and we struggled to find something that didn’t make her look like a molester’s wet dream.
Fuckaduck. I miss the stuff we used to find when I was little. It’s impossible to find, unless you’re willing to go to France, or Quebec. Now THEY know how to dress up kids.
Ahhh, that explains it.
I was walking across a huge semi-empty parking lot to a store entrance several months ago when I noticed a mother with two daughters approximately 30 yards away from me walking towards their car. The two daughters could not have been over thirteen and I noticed one had a really strange walk, as I drew closer, I realized that she was having difficulty because she was wearing shoes that had to have at least 4 inch heels. I thought I was going nuts, but now I see this may be a trend – which explains what I saw, but somehow seems even stranger than if my experience had been a single anomaly.
What’s especially fun is going to a store where they have clothes for kids, teens, etc. And finding THONGS for girls.
Not women. Not teenagers. GIRLS. Fizzy’s nieces would be able to wear those things. Well, they’d fit them. I don’t think their parents would tolerate their kids wearing a thong.
Does anyone else think that the most disturbing aspect of the OP is that there is a Wal-Mart in Germany?
I hear you Mort Furd. I’m sometimes so glad that I have boys and not girls. Nevermind the crap that girls have to go through in life (in general), I can’t imagine trying to shop for a 10-yearl-old girl these days.
