Princesses On Your Private Parts
The kids start Montessori in February. This is wonderful in many, many ways. They will spend three hours four mornings a week in an environment that so far seems ideal. They’ll start in the toddler room and move to the Primary program when they are three; the school itself goes up through 6th grade.
One big plus of the toddler room (known as the Young Children’s Community) is that they help the kids potty train. Students either go bare butt or wear underwear. Target only stocked toddler underwear with popular characters such as Dora or princesses on them. The school dress code forbids clothing with large designs or logos and I don’t dress my children in Disney marketing materials anyway ’cause I’m just snotty like that. Therefore I had to go look for plain toddler sized underwear which I finally found at the local natural children’s store.
I was talking to one of the owners and said, “Who wants princesses on their private parts anyway?”
But, you know, I bet a lot of men would LOVE to have princesses on their private parts. Maybe not PICTURES of princesses but an ACTUAL PRINCESS? I bet Target would get a lot of takers if they were offering that for sale.
Stumble it!
and the 529 college savings accounts get a kickback.
January 21st, 2008 01:28
We’re a bit no-logo around here too – while my daughter loves the princess thing, she is slowly deciding that snails are more interesting. And so they are!
Our Steiner daycare discouraged logos and characters, on the basis that they locked kids into received images rather than encouraging imaginative play – something I have noticed when kids go to birthday parties dressed as superheroes.
January 21st, 2008 08:03
I hear you on the non-logo issue. I never shop at clothing stores like Gap or American Eagle etc because I can’t stand the idea of being a walking advertisement. So far since MJ doesn’t watch TV the character toy/clothes hasn’t become an issue. I imagine it will soon though.
January 21st, 2008 10:18
http://www.HannaAndersson.com
Another good resource for organic underwear for the F and J.
January 21st, 2008 10:23
Seriously, the logo thing is Out. Of. Control. Even leaving aside the commercialization thing, it’s just tacky and ugly.
But then, I’m sure I have a long and brilliant future of hating what my girls are wearing.
January 21st, 2008 10:30
You nearly made me spit my coffee out, Stacie, you are *that* funny.
I have to admit, I don’t CARE what is on my kids’ underwear as long as they go to the bathroom when they need to. We actually got a big bunch of undies handed down to us, and with the rate at which undies got soiled during potty training, I was just glad to have a big supply. So I could THROW OUT the more repugnant ones.
But hey! This Montessori program sounds Wonderful! I was wondering if you were considering early potty training. I have heard that babes who are accustomed to cloth dipes ‘naturally’ potty train earlier. keep us posted!
January 21st, 2008 10:47
We are fairly anti-logo here as well, but I have found plain cotton toddler underwear at Gap and Gymboree. They usually just have designs like stripes and such, or just plain white and gray.
January 21st, 2008 10:58
My goal is to get F potty trained by the end of the summer. “School” should lay the groundwork and then I can let them run around naked in the back yard in the summer to help. We’ve ordered “Once Upon A Potty” which a friend of ours swears by – her daughter is well on he way and she is a smigeon younger than the twins. It’s funny because the conventional wisdom of today is not to push it and wait until they are 3 or so but every woman I’ve talked to who is old enough to be my grandmother “votes” for not waiting until they are over 2 when sheer orneriness will cause them to resist changing their habits.
If this school can get us off diapers it may actually pay for itself. We are back on the cloth now that F was getting a rash from the paper too and generous applications of Miracle Salve (to which she is no longer sensitive, who knows why) and prefolds without a rice paper liner seem to finally be doing the trick. Paper diapers are expensive. It really makes you value the cost savings of cloth, especially prefolds which are just plain old cheap.
Thanks for the Hanna Anderson link – OMG the prices on those make Under the Nile look cheap. I no longer feel quite so profligate in the underwear department! Gap, on the other hand, is quite reasonable and it is a bummer that our local Gap didn’t have the small underwear – I think I may order several more pairs. They have to have 7 pairs at school for accidents so right now I’ll be doing underwear laundry every night. The Under the Nile stuff is, at least, VERY sturdy and will stand up to daily laundering.
January 21st, 2008 12:06
The logo undies are always cheap and icky-looking, too. It’s much easier to find plain ones when the kids get out of toddler sizes, THANK GOODNESS.
I found a lot of plain (or non-logo prints) underpants at Gap on good discounts: their usual price is higher than I want to pay, but they drop down to $3.99 for a 3-pack and that’s when I buy up a TON.
January 21st, 2008 12:46
We’ve been thinking about Montessori for the boys; I’d love to hear more about why you chose it.
I’ll keep all those places in mind when it’s time for us to buy underwear. I’m not a huge fan of logos either. I wonder if Old Navy or Children’s Place has them.
January 21st, 2008 13:05
No logos, or characters here, either. Man I hate that stuff. Had to laugh about your Hannah Andersson comment. I just spent $40 plus shipping on socks from their catalog, that toddlers are not supposed to be able to pull off (a new past time around here…but hello, drafty house, girls!) I don’t even spend $5 a pair on my own socks! I promptly recycled the catalog and didn’t look back. Looking forward to watching F & J’s progress on the potty front, as I use you as my development guru.
January 21st, 2008 14:14
I’ve bought Fruit of the Loom print panties at a Meijer’s just outside Detroit. I live in Canada and like to shop Target and Meijer for the reasonably-priced, no logo clothes. Our similar stores are all-logo, all of the time. Perhaps it was just a bad day in the undie department. As for potty training, My daughter, now 3, was trained by 1. When she learned to crawl at 8.5 months, I put her on the potty when I used the bathroom so that she would stay put. It was less “training” than habit-forming. When the kids get older, you have to train them to change a behaviour that is well established. Then again, as long as they’re day trained by 5 or so, I wouldn’t worry.
January 21st, 2008 14:25
I would have agreed with you wholeheartidly a year ago. Then I had two daughters. And they are princesses.
So NO PRINCESSES on the private parts.
It’s amazing how having girls changes the way you look at things like SI swimsuit models and stuff.
January 21st, 2008 14:31
The idea of a whole room of toddlers who are bare butt or in undies is so darn cute. I’m glad to know there are logo free undies out there!
Speaking of princess on private parts, here is something so amazingly inappropriate for a thread on toddler undies I almost didn’t post. Upon reflection, I couldn’t help myself. It’s racy.
http://www.ocweekly.com/columns/savage-love/savage-love/28308/
January 21st, 2008 14:50
Totally awesome! Motessori schools rock!
January 22nd, 2008 07:21
Just a thought on toilet training – with my daughter (admittedly a single child who wasn’t at daycare until she was nearly 3) we let her take the lead on potty training. She started daycare at 2 3/4 wearing nappies all the time; she told us that when she turned 3 she wouldn’t wear nappies, and she was right – during the day. While she was 3 she still wore them at night and never took to pull-ups. A few months before her 4th birthday she told us she was ready for undies at night, and she was. I think we had two or three accidents with her, total. For me, not having to change sheets at night is worth putting on nappies for a little longer. Plus, she was so proud of herself. There wasn’t any forcing or orneriness. We would try her out on the potty regularly from about 2, and we kept a potty in the bathroom for when she wanted to join me, but didn’t force the issue.
Lord knows what we’ll do with the twins. Their preferred place to have a poo is … in the bath. I had to remove them both from the bath today when one of them had a poo in it, I washed them both off and took the poo-er to get his PJs on, then went back to the bathroom to find the other having a poo on the floor and the first one getting his hands into it. Motherhood is such a precious joy sometimes, hey.
January 24th, 2008 14:50
I don’t have goals for potty training, but we do have underpants here. We’ve had decent luck with Hanna Andersson very-smalls and Hanes 2T. The Hanes (from Target, I think, although my MIL bought them) came in a 6-pack: 1 white, 1 blue, 2 with dogs and cats, and 2 with monkeys and frogs.