by Tim Copeland

Created on: August 10, 2008

Clothing stores, music labels, television programs are sending the wrong message to our kids just to make a few zillion dollars: What is worse is some parents are "buying it" not me though. I take the hits and am the "bad guy" when I won't allow my daughter who is 11 to dress like she is 16. My wife should know better too, she is the engineer and I would have thought to be more practical, she is sure not a fashion plate. My wife will tell you she defers to me for fashion, color, and style ideas.

As a father of two young children; a son 9 and a daughter 11, I despite who ever is thinking this garbage up and marketing it to our kids. I for one can't stand to hardly even go in the stores anymore, turn on the radio or TV.

All I hear on the radio is rap music, TV is nothing more than sex, violence and pushing all the advertising towards woman, (Mom's) about how this product or that service is what is best for the kids, and there is hardly ever a father figure in the commercial, as if fathers don't care about what their kids wear or what food they eat or what decisions are made, men are made out to look like duffus, incompetent, if they are put in commercials at all.

When it comes to buying clothing my wife and I together take our kids out school shopping. Occasionally I will take my kids by myself during the week due to being a stay at home dad. It's gotten worse every year. The styles for little boys are essentially
T-shirts that have something to do with bad mouthing parents, siblings or making excuses for why homework wasn't done. The girls t-shirts say the same things. I got so mad one time when I went to a major department store; in the girls section, the t-shirts had some saying that was sexy or something like that,
I called the phone number on the hang tag and left a voice message right then about how upset I was over this kind of marketing to kids and that I would never buy their brand of clothing.

Today when my wife and I took our kids shopping, we where right on "target" when we went to this store. The clothing for the girls had short mini skirts and designs on t-shirts that looked like gang art I've seen growing up in what was predominantly Hispanic area of California, no not east LA but in it's own way it seemed just as bad.

My wife is more liberal than I am; I'm more main stream/conservative. It's my belief that kids should be able to look good and in style and be proud of the way they look and parents not have to buy into this marketing crap of making thee designers and clothing companies even more rich. So, I was against buying my 11 year old a mini skirt that had leopard print and a hot pink and black t-shirt with a rose, barbed wire, and little diamond flecks on the shirt which to me shouted, look at me I'm a gang banger/floozy, but my wife thought it was ok.

As a dad, what the hell...I am so tired of walking around these stores and watching the women give me snide looks, women can walk into the boys changing room to help their son, but by god if I walked into the girls changing room when my daughter wanted to show me an outfit, I got scolded and treated rudely by a female store worker the double standard is pathetic. As a stay at home dad I've been treated so unfairly and unequally by women, this entire experience has opened my eyes to so many other things that responsible dad's like me who are involved in raising their kids run into I feel like I should right a book about it. This writing might be the beginning of itwho knows-
Signing off for now,

All I can say is parents better wise up and band together with their buying power and send a message that this kind of marketing to our kids is not going to be tolerated.

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