Frivolous retail therapy poll.

[rivka]

Our finances, which have been tight for the last year and a half, are suddenly about to ease up. A lot. With more discretionary income on the near horizon, it's time to revisit the link folder where I've been storing up adorable toddler-sized sloganed T-shirts.[1]

I feel a little ambivalent about putting slogans on my kid. As I've said before:

I'm not entirely sure where to draw the line when it comes to ascribing my own political opinions to my child. On the one hand, I generally think it's distasteful when parents treat their young child as a political signboard, or put words in the child's mouth that they're too young to understand. My kid is not my mini-me. On the other hand, I think it's important to communicate our values from the very beginning, and to make political involvement and social justice work part of our family's everyday lives.

So, where does the line fall in T-shirt form? I welcome comments, personal philosophies, and of course, votes in my retail therapy poll.

[Poll #1138454]


[1] Yes, at some point I'll spend some of the extra disposable income on things for myself. It's just a lot more fun to buy clothes for Alex. Buying clothes for myself is work, and not pleasant work.

Comments

[lynsaurus.livejournal.com]

If Alex would like the wordless chalice, I like it. It's an expression of belonging that I suspect she would agree with, but without the words she gets to decide what belonging means. I want every UU toddler to know is that church is a safe place where adults care about you. I think a chalice T-shirt is a reminder of that. That being said, it sounds like a shirt with a dolphin and a shark would be super exciting to her.

[rivka.livejournal.com]

I really like the wordless chalice picture. I'm thinking of getting one in black for me, and one in yellow (her favorite color) for her.

Alex was about 1 1/2 when she first learned to identify a chalice. Michael had gone to some kind of JPD workshop and come home with a bunch of brochures emblazoned with chalices. Alex took one look and said, "Mama's necklace!" We explained what it was, and she spent the next couple of Sundays on a chalice hunt at church. It seemed to be very exciting for her to recognize this connection between our family and the church.

I don't know if you ever read Phil's Little Blog on the Prairie (http://philontheprairie.wordpress.com/) - he does lifespan RE for the Prairie Star district. I've been heavily influenced by a series of posts (http://home.earthlink.net/~psdlund/id2.html) he wrote about establishing a religious home. He's led me to put a lot of thought into how we show Alex that our religion is an important part of our lives - at home as well as at church.

[lynsaurus.livejournal.com]

I know Phil, but haven't been reading his blog. I will have to check that out. Yay, religious home!