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It’s really interesting that so many different stores now have licensed graphic tees and other items — I used to look at Gap for Star Wars, and another store for something else, etc. Now they all seem to be everywhere, except I’ve only seen Harry Potter at Target. My son likes the things they have, like this t-shirt for $8.99. In general, ladies, what kind of graphic tees (and PJs, hats, sunglasses, etc.) do you like to put your kids in? Do you prefer for them to find their own interests, or do you just think it’s really cute when they wear things like this? I tend to think it’s adorable to have my kid in a Pink Floyd toddler t-shirt — also from Target — but that’s me! Harry Potter Glow Verbiage Graphic T-Shirt This post contains affiliate links and CorporetteMoms may earn commissions for purchases made through links in this post. For more details see here. Thank you so much for your support!Sales of note for 5.5.24
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And — here are some of our latest threadjacks of interest – working mom questions asked by the commenters!
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- Has anyone given birth in a teaching hospital?
- My child eats everything, and my friends’ kids do not – how should I handle? In general, what is the best way to handle when your child has some skill/ability and your friend’s child doesn’t have that skill/ability?
- ADHD moms, give me your tips to help with things like behavior in the classroom, attention to detail, etc?
- I think I suffer from mom rage…
- My husband and kids are gone this weekend – how should I enjoy my free time?
- I’m struggling to be compassionate with a SAHM friend who complains she doesn’t have enough hours of childcare.
- If you exclusively formula fed, what tips do you have for in the hospital and coming home?
- Could I take my 4-yo and 8-yo on a 7-8 day trip to Paris, Lyon, and Madrid?
Stephanie says
LO loves his superhero shirts and baseball team shirts. I love Wire & Honey for their graphic tees, many of which have a political message. I’ve bought several of their girl empowerment type of shirts for friends’ daughters.
CPA Lady says
I don’t put my kid in shirts with words or characters on them yet. I just want to wait til she knows what is on her shirt and is okay with it. I took her to our local women’s march after the election and put her in a “the future is female” shirt and even felt a little bit weird about that, like I was using my kid as a billboard for my own political beliefs.
I don’t really like character shirts (peppa pig, mickey mouse, etc) very much, but will probably give in once in a while if she asks for stuff like that, because I don’t want to be too rigid. The time my extremely uptight mom let me get a little mermaid outfit (matching leggings because it was 1992) was one of the best days of my young life, and I want my kid to have some of those moments too.
AIMS says
I’m of a similar mindset. I know the consensus here is that Princess in Training slogans are bad but Future Astronaut shirts are awesome, but honestly I tend to avoid both for my kid because she’s too young to pick out her own slogans (also I rarely like slogan tees on adults so why put them on kids?).
The closest we have to stuff like this is shirts with animals on them, but she really loves bunnies and kittens so the shirt with a fluffy kitten and Meow written on is something she’s genuinely excited to wear.
AwayEmily says
I personally dislike slogan stuff (or even t-shirts with any graphics on them) from an aesthetic standpoint, but I’m sure that my dislike inevitably means that my kids will be EXTRA into that type of clothing once they learn to express preferences. My 16-month old is turning into a truck-obsessed maniac and once she realizes she can have a truck ON HER SHIRT I suspect that will be the end of her carefully curated solid-color-only outfits. Oh well, I don’t really care enough to put up a fight.
Anonymous says
I definitely do not use my child as political propaganda. I completely agree that it’s inappropriate. I do not agree with my parents politics, and I cant guarantee my child will agree with mine. I also do not do the “cutesy” phrase shirts. My daughter does have an AC/DC and a Grateful Dead t-shirt (because adorable) and now that she’s starting to have an opinion for herself, we definitely have a couple of Minnie mouse shirts and a Frozen swimsuit. Because that battle is just not worth it.
avocado says
Ours had an AB/CD shirt!
Sabba says
Off topic, but I have been thinking about my child’s future political philosophies a lot. Mostly because I have a visceral hatred towards anyone that supports a certain party right now. (I’m working on separating the people from the partisan politics, but it is creating issues with certain family members.) My current views is that my child can have whatever politics she wants, but I am doing my best to instill good values and critical thinking in her. If she has good values and can look past groupthink to form her own well-reasoned opinions, then I am confident she will do well with whatever politics she follows.
Anon says
Yeah, I am faced with the prospect of raising (at least) two white males to be kind, empathetic, brave individuals and it’s a daunting prospect. The world they will grow into will look different than the world as it now is (possibly different political parties??) and so I’m trying not to get hung up on particulars, but focus on raising them with values to help them be good people. I know my political thoughts and philosophies have changed A LOT since high school, and will probably continue to be fluid as I grow as a person, and I’m sure theirs will, too.
For what it’s worth, I have gone back and forth on my voter registration and right now I’m probably officially a “member” of that hated party (I was hoping to help elect a moderate in primaries!). I’m feeling pretty topsy-turvey now, myself.
Anonymous says
+1 to all of this. I change my voter registration every presidential election cycle so that I can vote in whichever primary I feel most strongly about. So right now, I’m R. My current state (MD) has a late primary and is dark blue at a national level, but it makes me feel a little more involved. I’m from Ohio originally and miss having a presidential vote that “counts.”
I also feel a big responsibility for raising two thoughtful, compassionate white males. And side note on that – did anyone else read the NYT article about DJT Jr and other Peter Pan man-boys? Adding “adult who takes responsibility for his actions” to my goal future state for my sons (and daughters for that matter).
shortperson says
i think about this all the time. always thinking of the scene in SATC where carrie’s bf’s very UWS mom said something like “when franny told me she was a lesbian, i said, that’s fine, as long as you’re not a republican.” that is very much our household too. being a republican would be the ultimate rebellion for our children.
Anon for this says
I don’t mind some slogans/words or stuff like animals, dinosaurs, etc.. We haven’t done character clothing yet (I’m not into it), but my kid is starting to get into selecting her pineapple/dinosaur/fish/bird shirts.
Rainbow Hair says
I tell my daughter what the words on her shirts say, which seems like a good compromise to me. “Want to wear your ‘Lets Go On An Adventure!’ shirt?” So far her phrase shirts that I can think of (aside from like, “Meow” on a cat shirt) are just that and “Rainbow is my favorite color.” Oh wait she also has a “Cactus makes perfect” shirt. We live in a desert! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I tried to stay away from branded/character stuff but she wears mostly hand-me-downs from cousins and gifts from my MIL, so Minnie Mouse and Dora sneak in there. The “Daddy’s Cupcake” ones make me gag.
That being said, she found a ride-on Batmobile at Goodwill about a month ago, and is now *obsessed* with Batman and Joker, and I will not object if she wants Batman clothes (because I love Batman too).
NewMomAnon says
Not a criticism, so much as an observation. This seems like a very privileged conversation; shopping largely at the big-box stores with cheap t-shirts and the goodwill/hand me down closets, almost every shirt has a character or slogan on it. My kiddo’s closet has only recently started divesting of character and slogan shirts because her growth is slowing enough that I’m willing to pay more for Boden/Tea Collection/Primary, instead of hunting through Target/Old Navy/H&M/Goodwill/garage sales for cheap shirts she will outgrow in 3 months.
AwayEmily says
Hmmm, interesting….my daughter’s wardrobe is exclusively Target and H&M and she has zero character/slogan shirts. But I shop pretty heavily for her in the boys section, so maybe there are more “plain” shirts there.
Anon says
My son is clothed pretty much exclusively in thrift store clothes (thanks, Grandma!) and Old Navy, none of which have slogans or characters. I think Carter’s is the worst with their slogans and cutesy clothes.
H says
Same. ON and Target have plenty of options that are not characters. Even carter’s has a lot of options for shirts without characters or cheesy words.
Anon says
I should clarify that my son’s shirts do have pictures on them — like generic whales or trucks or balls — but I don’t consider those “characters” and he does often get a kick out of wearing them.
The thing about Carter’s is that even if the garment is plain or a nondescript pattern, there is usually a tiny patch or some embroidery that says really small “Daddy’s big star” or “super park ranger” or something. Probably no one else who sees my kid notices the words, but it just bothers me that there has to be a “label” at all. I mean, I do still shop there because they have good sales and readily-available clothes, but…
Anonymous says
We do a lot from H&M’s conscious line because it rarely has characters/slogans.
CPA Lady says
While I agree that it’s a class marker, it’s not that there aren’t solid color/non character/non slogan options, it’s that people in different classes (even divided out between white collar poor and blue collar poor) typically buy different things, even when they shop at the same stores. My local Walmart has a bunch of solid color options in their Garanimals collection. They have big tables that only have solid colored tops and leggings for $2-5 a pop.
For the half of my family that is uneducated and dirt poor, TV is not a “character” issue the way it is for rich white people. It’s a useful, pragmatic way to entertain themselves and their children. So there is no issue with putting their kids in front of the TV for hours and no issue putting their kids in clothes with cartoon characters all over them. I think the reason my mom never let us have that stuff was because she didn’t want us to look poor (my dad’s family was rich) and didn’t want to have us out in the world in clothes that made us look like we watched a bunch of TV. My boss, who lives in the wealthiest suburb of our town, only lets her children wear smocked clothes with Disney characters only when at Disney World. My mom let me have one Disney outfit. My poor relative kids have a bunch of that stuff. (Obviously broad generalizations here– do not mean to offend).
October says
This is fascinating. I hadn’t considered this, but from my (outsider) perspective it makes a lot of sense.
Rainbow Hair says
Huh, like I said I barely ever buy her new clothes — basically only as a “treat” (and then it’s from the discount rack at Old Navy or Target, because $3 seems like the right price for something she’ll wear for a few months tops) … though I acknowledge that I am very lucky to have a sister with two older kids, so my kid can basically be exclusively clothed in hand-me-downs (and gifts). But yeah, in that case, I can’t be (and am not!) choosy about what’s in her dresser. I guess my sister was, a bit, and that’s why we don’t have a lot of character clothing.
If I had a kids clothing budget of infinity dollars she’d probably be exclusively dressed in those adorable, sustainable-textile, handmade jumper type things with deer prints in neutral colors that they sell at hippie stores.
AwayEmily says
to make myself feel better, I tell myself that those adorable deer jumpers are probably hand-wash cold and line-dry, which doesn’t really mesh well with my “wash everything on super hot and then let it sit in the dryer for two days” laundry strategy.
Rainbow Hair says
Ah, that IS helpful! And anyway, my “I want to wear the PURPLE ONE!” two-year-old would probably not be as charmed by the deer jumpers as I am.
anon says
I’m similar although I am lucky that my hand me downs come from a friend with twins, so I often have enough to edit them a bit. When my son was younger we did more solid colors and I avoided characters and sayings (but not graphics per se) with the notable exception of the I LOVE MY CAT shirt I insisted on getting him. But he is now 5 and greatly prefers shirts with pictures on them. He even loved the slightly raggedy Virgin Islands hand me down shirt we got because it had frogs all over it. So I let him pick what he likes of the hand me downs and I buy mostly shirts with pictures on them, either printed or appliques. They also hide stains better than solid colors. Frankly, I get a kick out of seeing what he picks – he constantly surprises me.
AwayEmily says
now I desperately want to get my daughter an I LOVE MY CAT shirt.
Anonymous says
AwayEmily it was from Old Navy; I think they may still make that design
SC says
We don’t have any slogan shirts, but I think they’re less common for boys’ clothes. We have a lot (maybe 15?) of character shirts and some character pajamas–some hand-me-downs, some I picked up at consignment stores, and some purchased by grandparents. (I don’t really buy new clothes for Kiddo.) I save the character shirts for the weekends and around the house, but I don’t send Kiddo to school in them. It feels like a good compromise to me. And Kiddo definitely recognizes the characters on his shirt, but he doesn’t seem to care yet.
TXatty says
I buy my two boys a lot of graphic t-shirts from Peek and J. Crew, and now I’m wondering if everyone is judging me. For example, I just bought 5 shirts from Peek (1: DNA themed, 2: Solar System themed, 3: Soccer themed, 4: Chemistry themed, 5: Space travel themed). I would totally put my kid in a Harry Potter themed shirt. My husband and I love Harry Potter, and we can’t wait to read the books to our kids.
shortperson says
DNA shirt? thanks for the tip!
Anonymous says
This seems a little over the top to me. I understand avoiding polarizing political slogans and “cutesy”/gender-stereotyping phrases, but what’s wrong with promoting my favorite band or sports team via my child?
avocado says
I am happy that my daughter shares my love of graphic tees that are clever, quirky, or unique. For tees related to movies or books, I really like it when the shirt looks like something out of that imaginary world–so instead of a shirt with a Harry Potter saying on it, my daughter has one that looks like a Gryffindor Quidditch jersey (yes, I know the players actually wear robes, but maybe the fans would wear it?). I have also made efforts to seek out girl-power shirts related to her particular interests. Some of my favorites have been a tribute to a pioneering female mountain climber, one celebrating a female astronomer, one with Rey from Star Wars, one featuring the female characters from her favorite musical, and one that says “I’m a [athlete in her sport]–what’s your superpower?” She absolutely loved the new Wonder Woman movie, so I am currently hunting for a cool Wonder Woman shirt. She also has a growing collection of shirts for college teams in her sport, which I pick up on my work travels.
As she gets older, my little mini-feminist has been asking for shirts with more overtly political messages, which after some great discussion here we have limited to the PJ drawer. She also wants graphic tees that are on trend at her school. In fourth grade, that meant pictures of cute animals with silly sayings. Entering middle school, she wants those shirts with odd sayings in block letters that all the 20-somethings (okay, and perhaps her non-20-something mommy) are wearing.
avocado says
Also–When she was really little, I avoided character shirts until she was old enough to beg for an Elmo shirt. I did, however, put her in shirts I found cute or funny or slightly edgy before she was old enough to have a preference. I didn’t really see anything wrong with using a cute little blob who couldn’t read, was too young for any type of self-determination, and was physically attached to me half of the time as a fashion extension of myself.
Lyssa says
My son has the same first name as a popular superhero, and he has TONS of shirts based on that theme, which is cute. In general, I try to go for things that we like or think are cute, though we’ve started to allow some more of what they’re interested in now that they’re old enough to have interests. The Harry Potter one here is cute, even though my kids are a long way away from Harry Potter, because my husband and I are fans. I don’t like the idea of shirts with actual meaningful messages on them – I’d rather the kids get old enough to understand and pick their own messages.
AwayEmily says
Gonna go ahead and assume that your son’s name is Spider.
Anon in NYC says
lol YES
Em says
Please tell me your son’s name is Thor. My sister is really into unusual names and my husband almost had her convinced to name my nephew Thor.
EP-er says
I knew a Thor. He was a foster child that stayed with a while when I was growing up. When he was adopted at age 8/10 his parents told him he could pick any name he wanted…
Rainbow Hair says
A friend got pregnant with an IUD in. She and her husband joked that if Baby came out holding the IUD like a tiny baby hammer, they’d have to name him Thor.
Anon in NYC says
I love this so much.
Potential Adoptive Parent says
Interesting. We are just starting to look into adopting from foster care and one thing that concerned me was some of the children’s names. I would want my future child to have the ability to retain her identity if she wanted to but at the same time some names are not setting up a child for future success – particularly if it spelled all wonky and a common household item. This isn’t just a race issue either, many of these children are white. I’ve also struggled with wondering how I’d respond if my future child kept her name and people asked me why I named her that. Would it be too much of the child’s personal info to say, oh, we adopted her with that name? I also wouldn’t want to embarrass her by preemptively explaining it away either like I didn’t pick this, she came with it! Lot’s of loaded issues. I like the idea of letting the child pick. One name I saw was something like Shar-Denae (pronounced Chardonnay).
anon says
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2140586/Scandal-babies-parents-wont-adopt-theyre-called-Chrystal-Chardonnay.html
British article about this exact topic. I read it several years ago and it has stuck with me.
Potential Adoptive Parent says
Wow. On point!
Anonanonanon says
that was a really interesting read, anon. thanks for sharing!
EP-er says
So my parents actually adopted 3 children out of foster care. (Not Thor, though!) One was named a nickname (think Chrissy) which they changed to the formal name (Christine) when they adopted her, as well as adding in a middle name. She was 3 when they adopted her, so she knew her name but wasn’t old enough to be “allowed” to change it. The other two were infants when they were adopted, so didn’t know their names.
Anon says
I used to work with a Thor who is in his 70s and now retired. He was one of the warmest, most genuine people I’ve ever met. So now I really love that name.
anon says
My kid shares a name with a certain Jedi. I’m not going to lie, it’s pretty fun sometimes like when he got to do Jedi training and “fight” DV.
We generally avoid character stuff unless its requested. I’m fine with vintage-y tees or things with puns/slogans that he understands.
Anonymous says
I know a Jarvis, as in the Iron Man robot.
anon says
My 3 year old daughter is really into animal tees. We have quite a collection of shark and bug tees, in particular. They always come from the boys department. I didn’t think much of it until recently a daycare mom said something like, “I love that you dress her like this…”
Sometimes we fem up her look by pairing colorful pants (pink, purple, orange) with an especially dull tee. She doesn’t seem to care either way and I just want her to be comfortable.
Anonymous says
FYI I just bought the BEST shark t-shirt in the girl’s section at Target (it’s Cat and Jack). It has a little bit of glitter, a less boxy cut, and a slight puff in the sleeves. And it has 5 different kinds of sharks on the front and on the back it says “Did you know the whale shark is the biggest fish in the ocean?”
LaLa says
Any experiences with the Tucker and Tate brand from Nordstroms? How are they on quality?
I see some cute stuff on the Anniversary sale, but I was burned by their other in house brand (Harpers Canyon, but maybe this is only a Rack brand?) as it was terrible quality (super pilly after a few washes).
Anonymous says
LOVE Tucker and Tate. I only buy it on sale, but everything we’ve gotten from them (limited to t-shirts for toddler boys, in full disclosure) has held up great. Oh, actually, DS’s first real shoes were T&T too, and we just bought the same pair again.
PregLawyer says
I love Tucker and Tate. In my experience, their clothes hold up really well.
avocado says
Tucker and Tate runs very small. For us the quality of some items (underwear, 100% cotton tank tops, denim jacket) has been good, but t-shirts and anything not 100% cotton have tended to pill.
EP-er says
In general, I like their cotton stuff. I bought a shirt made of their “super soft tri-blend” and it pilled terribly. The 100% cotton wears nicely. I didn’t think that they ran small, more TTS. (except for the PJs, which were supposed to be tight.)
anon says
Question for the city mamas – is there some magical way to remove sooty dirt stains? We are in NYC, and I think the playgrounds must have a lot of soot on them, or I must really suck at laundry, because all of my son’s shorts have dingy dirt stains that just do not want to wash out.
Artemis says
I fee like a bit of an outlier. I avoid almost all slogans but totally adore character shirts and my kids (both genders) have pretty much no solid tshirts. They do have stripes, plaid, floral, polka dot, etc. They watch TV and movies but not a ton, and when they were babies I picked out my favorite characters. Now that they are older they pick their own within reason. In part this is because I think kid’s clothes should be fun. Also, I have quite a few funny or random graphic tees myself that I love to wear on the weekend. Finally, my oldest wears a school uniform and so I want to maximize his clothing freedom otherwise. If that means Harry Potter and superhero shirts, I’m all for it. When they pick stuff that I used to like (Transformers, Little Mermaid), I get nostalgic (and jealous!). And octopuses, or astronauts, or other random non-TV stuff? Go for it!
Anon says
Agreed that clothes should be fun, especially when they wear school uniforms all week.
I hate the gross sexualization ones like “lady killer” and “grandpa’s princess”, and REALLY hate the gendered ones like “born leader” for boys and “smile more hug more” for girls. And I avoid political or embarrassing sayings – I would HATE if my parents had taken a picture of me in a MAGA-equivalent hat, or if I wore one of those “diaper loading” onesies, so I try to give that sort of respect to my kids even if they’re not old enough to voice it yet.
But I love the alligators and rocket ships and crazy polka dots mixed with stripes. My daughter wears Batman and Chase (Paw Patrol) and Maui, my son wears Wonder Woman and Skye and Moana. (And they flip flop of course, too – they’re wearing the same sizes right now even though they’re two years apart so they share a closet.)
Pigpen's Mama says
Same here, and not only does she have character shirts in her drawers, she has slogan shirts as well.
A few are her preferred characters (Paw Patrol), a few are mine (Star Wars), and the slogans tend to veer towards nerdy slogans, because I love nerdy shirts, especially those with puns, or the girl power type, but not princessy, sexual or rude. Most of her shirts have animals or flowers or stripes or some sort of print on them.
anon says
I don’t love character tees, but my kids have a few. You’re only a kid once, you know?
I’m probably pickier about slogans than character tees. My son (7) asked some decent questions about why girls were constantly wearing “Girls Rule!” type shirts whereas boys don’t have anything like that. Trying to explain that one at a level he could understand wasn’t the easiest thing.
I loathe sassiness in t-shirt slogans, which are abundant in the girls’ section. You know the ones I’m talking about. The ones that sound bratty, not empowering. For boys, I kinda can’t stand the proliferation of athletic slogans. My son is plenty active, but the typical ball sports are not his jam.