Pajama Tirade!

Ladies and gentlemen, THIS is the enemy:

Searching online for the general price of toddler jammies (going to the outlets in G'burg next week, and I'm not buying it just cause it's Osh Kosh or Baby Gap. They need to beat Wal-Mart & Target's prices for me, please!) so I check out a discount store's site and search for girl toddler sleepwear.
Gah! All Disney, all princess, except for one token Dora (throwing our Hispanic chicas a bone because Disney refuses to touch their ethnicity with a feature-length film? And what, a black girl wouldn't make a nice addition to the Princess Circle? Walt, you posthumously suck.) But that's just my minor beef - although one of the perks of moving to SJ from south-central PA was that my kids won't grow thinking black people are only on TV - this actually has nothing to do with race.

Why the Hell are we mommies actually shelling out money to the Disney corporation for the honor of advertising their insipid characters on our children's chests? Every jammie on the page was giving free rent to a corporate character. The 2nd page had cartoon-free jammies, two of them. $8.99. The cartoon character ones were selling for $12.99 and up. Honestly. I don't get it.

I've been self-righteously told by a few older (but wiser?) friends who have children older than my own that I might as well start dressing her in Princess this and Dora that now, because in a year or two I won't have a choice at all in what she likes and wears anyway. Yes, a colleague, a teacher with a degree, told me this. To her face, I rolled my eyes. In my head, "the heck you say!"

"Mamma, Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys" is quite possibly a bit of sound advice, as well as a a bit of nicely cheesed country. I refuse to believe that I have that little of an effect on my child's life. Are these the same parents that "discuss" with their children the possibility of eating veggies rather than chips, or wearing a coat instead of a tank top when it's snowing? No, you can't control their preferences. But if they never watch South Park, they'll never be quoting Cartman at school. You decide what you child watches on TV. Always. Until it's not your TV anymore, because they're living on campus. On a nice scholarship, God willing. In my family were were allowed to watch "The Simpsons" from the first season, when I was 8 *gasp* and I'm pretty liberal with "themes" on TV shows. But if I decide that I don't want my kid watching a show or getting into a particular character, that's that. It may be because I think they present a narrow and stereotypical version of what a young woman should be (pearls or diamonds to the ball, oh my!) or it may be because I want to punch the TV when I hear them sing (Barney does not, will not exist in our house. I have made my peace with 3rd-person-simpering Elmo, thankyouvermuch.) But what we say, goes. And that goes for her pajamas.

And I'd appreciate it if these retailers would give me at least a few more options beyond Belle and Ariel (Pocahontas would so kick the rest of their asses, lay them out with one kick and survive in the wilderness for weeks alone afterwards, if need be. And where is she on the stupid jammie above?)

And one last whine: Why must everything be THAT color pink? I've eased my ban on pink, mainly because my daughter looks cute in certain shades of it - none of them appearing on a Disney Princess. But WHY must all girl stuff be that awful shade of magenta/pink. I saw a collection of bats, baseballs, soccer balls, and gloves in Target yesterday, and they were all solid, Disney Princess Pink. Oh. My. FairyGODmother.

Now, if I'm going to spend a little extra cash and properly use my offspring as a billboard for my own interests, we'd be buying this in several sizes: