{"id":139,"date":"2009-08-23T17:48:26","date_gmt":"2009-08-23T22:48:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.annakatedonovan.com\/?p=139"},"modified":"2009-08-23T17:48:26","modified_gmt":"2009-08-23T22:48:26","slug":"bratz-really","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/annakatedonovan.com\/?p=139","title":{"rendered":"Bratz? Really?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I don’t get Bratz<\/a>.\u00a0 I don’t understand why people buy these dolls for their daughters.\u00a0 Why would you want to idolize the epitome of what we don’t want our children to become?\u00a0 Or am I the only one who doesn’t want her daughters to be spoiled brats in inappropriate outfits?<\/p>\n

Barbies<\/a> and Polly Pockets<\/a> don’t bother me.\u00a0 Does that make me a hypocrite?\u00a0 Maybe.\u00a0 My girls have a lot of both Barbies and Pollies.\u00a0 That being said, we do not purchase all of the clothes and accessories that are available for these dolls.\u00a0 If my girls want a house for their dolls, they have to build one out of Legos<\/a> or shoe boxes or use the dollhouse that my parents built for me when I was 5.\u00a0 I certainly don’t buy any of the outfits that look like they belong in a strip club…and believe me, I could if I wanted to!<\/p>\n

When Abigail started 1st grade I was forced to accept that things aren’t the same now as they were when I was in 1st grade.\u00a0 When I was seven I paid no attention whatsoever to what my friends were wearing.\u00a0 Okay, that’s a lie.\u00a0 I secretly coveted my best friend’s purple New Edition t-shirt.\u00a0 But that’s it.\u00a0 I had no idea about brands or fashions or the cost of clothes and neither did anyone else in my class.\u00a0 It wasn’t an issue until I was in the 6th grade.\u00a0 Even then it was forced on me by other girls in my school.\u00a0 Looking back, it was wonderful to be truly innocent during elementary school.\u00a0 I had plenty to occupy my mind just being a child.\u00a0 Now stores are selling low rise jeans and skimpy panties for elementary aged girls.\u00a0 Many stores don’t even offer “regular” children’s clothes.\u00a0 It’s all just the junior department in tiny sizes.\u00a0 Don’t get me wrong.\u00a0 I’m not suggesting that children can’t be fashion forward or that they should wear smocked dresses or sweatpants every day.\u00a0 I just don’t think they should be dressed like tiny adults.\u00a0 I also don’t want my daughters to dress in an overtly sexual way at age 16 much less at age 8.\u00a0 Am I the only one who thinks that these trends are sending the wrong messages?\u00a0 Then there are the moms who try to hold on to their youth by dressing like 18 year olds.\u00a0 As my favorite duo, Stacy and Clinton from What Not to Wear<\/a> say, “18 year olds always<\/em> win!”\u00a0 But I digress….<\/p>\n

I don’t think parents realize what they are setting themselves up for.\u00a0 Little girls should have the chance to be little girls.\u00a0 There is no reason to make age 13 come any quicker than it already does.\u00a0 It will come fast enough!<\/p>\n

My mother-in-law gave me a great book<\/a> for Christmas about raising girls in the current era of advertising.\u00a0 I will admit that I haven’t finished the book but what I have read so far intrigues me.\u00a0 As parents in 2009, we face a whole new set of challenges that didn’t even exist when we were children.\u00a0 There are entire marketing campaigns targeting young children.\u00a0 If you’ve ever watched Saturday morning cartoons (there aren’t that many to choose from these days!) with your children, you have probably noticed that the majority of the air time is dominated by commercials.\u00a0 Commercials for crap.\u00a0 “All you ever wanted in its own storage tub for $19.99!\u00a0 Call now and we’ll double your order!”\u00a0 Great.\u00a0 Double crap.\u00a0 Fabulous!!<\/p>\n

I know I’ve written a lot lately about my ideals of raising children – girls in particular.\u00a0 Please do not get the wrong idea.\u00a0 I am merely expressing my thoughts.\u00a0 I am not going to judge you if you don’t agree with me.\u00a0 This is my opinion, nothing more.\u00a0 I am not a nominee for mother-of-the-year and I never will be.\u00a0 I make a lot of mistakes.\u00a0 We all do.\u00a0 But it’s my job to give my children the best chance to succeed in life.\u00a0 And I don’t think missing the Bratz boat will hurt them one little bit!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I don’t get Bratz.\u00a0 I don’t understand why people buy these dolls for their daughters.\u00a0 Why would you want to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,9],"tags":[64,63,66,65,67],"class_list":["post-139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-children","category-random-thoughts","tag-barbie","tag-bratz","tag-packaging-girlhood","tag-polly-pocket","tag-what-not-to-wear"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/annakatedonovan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/annakatedonovan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/annakatedonovan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/annakatedonovan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/annakatedonovan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=139"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/annakatedonovan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":183,"href":"https:\/\/annakatedonovan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139\/revisions\/183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/annakatedonovan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/annakatedonovan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/annakatedonovan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}