There are several things that confuse me about the world of children's clothing. Given that it is freezing cold in 80% of the country during the month of December, why do most non-offensive girls' holiday dresses have spaghetti straps?
Almost as perplexing is why underwear makers put designs on the butt sides of toddler underpants.
Their insistence on doing means that toddlers everywhere suffer from the physical discomforts that come along with wearing one's underpants backwards.
"The trucks are supposed to go in the back," I told my almost three year-old today.
"No," he replied and looked at me like I was crazy. When he ran down the hall I got a good look at his makeshift thong.
"Let's turn your underpants around," I suggested a few minutes later. "Please." It pained me to watch him strut around like that.
"NOOOOOOO!"
During our next trip to the bathroom, I tried and failed to turn the underpants around without him knowing. Cameron has his issues, but he's no dummy when it comes to wedgies. He knows when he has one and when he doesn't.
Do your kids do this too?
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My three year old won't even put his underwear on himself most of the time, he still makes me do it! I do agree with you though, and we have those same underpants!
My daughter's almost two in a few weeks, and we're waiting a bit before starting in on the potty training, but I do remember vividly little siblings--boys and girls alike--walking around with baggy fronts and thong backs. I just figured it was a fashion statement.
We've moved beyond the toddler underpants in our house, but my almost-6-year-old, who is fully capable of distinguishing between the front and the back of her undies, still winds up with makeshift thongs half the time. I don't know how she doesn't notice, because it would drive me nuts, but she seems perfectly happy the way they are and genuinely bewildered when I point out that they're wrong. Sometimes she turns them around.
You are NOT alone on this one. Girl underwear are better most of the time because the design is generally all over instead of just a character in one place (always the back). My three year old does that too, but I don't think he gets wedgies. He always has pants on top, so if he does, he doesn't care. =)
LOL! Isaac doesn't wear his unders backwards but rather inside out. I really think it's mostly a laziness thing that he doesn't turn them the right way. Oh well!
My 2(almost 3 year old son) will wear his underwear the right way....but he insists on wearing no bottoms. I make him if we go out in public but he is happy to run around our house without anything but his gitchies. I sure hope he doesn't start wanting to wear his underwear the wrong way! As for the holiday dresses, I find the same problem here in MB, Canada...Although I was able to find one cute dress with sleeves at the Bay last year!
Had to laugh!! My three almost four year old has been wearing his backwards for over two years!! I have thought the same thing so many times...why can't Lighting McQueen be on the front? I think he is just used to it now, and on the rare occasion that he gets them on right, it's only five minutes before they are on backwards again. I keep waiting for him to notice, but he just does not care!!
This has been a constant subject of debate for me with both my 3 year old DS and 2 year old DD!!
Had the same problem with both of my boys! Maybe we should write a petition!
YES! My now 5 year old did the same thing throughout his 3's and 4's! "But Mommy, I can't see the picture that way!"
My little guy will be three next week and he always wants me to put his underwear on for him even though he can do it himself. Maybe it's just easier to get it turned backwards! Most of his are plain whitey tighties, so the picture thing doesn't really matter.
Sandy
www.twelvemakesadozen.blogspot.com
Yes, and he's almost five! It's completely ridiculous.
No, my child doesn't do this. However, I bet your three year old doesn't "flip off" total strangers out the back window of your van or ask you to smell his finger everyday, just in case it smells like poop. I love your blog and feel happy that there is someone I can relate to in the world of parenting.
Thank you for showing me that we are not the only ones fighting with the backwards/frontwards issue!
Ha, my seven year old daughter does this too. And it doesn't matter if there is a design on the back or not. I think she just got so used to having a wedgie she thinks it is normal. My mother is constantly yelling at me for allowing this. YOU tell her to turn her undies around, I am done with battle. Glad I am not the only one.
I'd much rather have them on the back. Freaked me out to no end to have Bob the Builder covering my son's...well... you know.
I think they all do this :) My last one here I put them on and said, see Diego, he's on your butt... Cracked him up that he was sitting on Diego's face.....
my kids don't do it, but I am WITH you on the bewilderment of sleeveless dresses for Winter months....WHY IS THAT???? ARGH!!!!! Drives me batty!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Absolutely. When my son started wearing underwear, he insisted that the picture went on the front. Why would they go on the back? How do you see it? Then when I'd put them on the right way, he would always look back to make sure the picture was still there.
I laughed like crazy when I read this! My three year old is asking whats so funny. She had the same problem. She refused to turn the undies around. I fixed this by buying her undies at Gymboree (only on clearance and with a coupon of course). All their undies have designs either all over, or in the front. Plus, theirs just fit better than discount brands. She loves the girly designs they have too. My nephews wear Gymboree boys undies and love them! You can usually get them for $2 or less if you shop the clearance sales.
My nephew, when he was very young, always wore his underpants backwards. When we quizzed him on why, he replied 'so the farts can get out'.
YES!!! My six-year-old just started wearing his the right way! My three-year-old cannot be convinced. It looks so uncomfortable, it drives me crazy!! hilarious!!
Oh my goodness - I just assumed I was the only mom in the world dealing with the backward underpants phenomenon. What a relief to know I'm not alone!! :) I just found your blog a few days ago and I'm LOVING it - thanks for the laughs!
So funny! I think that Christmas dresses are made without sleeves so that you have to buy a sweater to go with it. I have four girls and find myself forced to buy four matching sweaters to go with their Christmas dresses every year which nearly doubles my bill.
My daughter's Dora/HelloKitty/Princesses underpants always had the design on the front! When we started my son in underpants, he was confused in the beginning but seems to have accepted that the Toy Story characters go on his butt. Now i'm always telling him, "remember to poop in the toilet--you don't want to poop on Woody or Buzz do you?"
We have a pack of those trucks underwear and my 2 year old asks EVERY time I put them on him, "where my trucks go? I no see 'dem."
It's a tough life when you're two and your trucks are on your butt.
Yes, he tends to prefer it backwards. My mom found a set of Paul Frank day of the week underwear that has an image on front and an image on the butt and that helps.
Also, the phrase "pocket in the front" has helped us significantly in getting him to put his underwear on the right way.
Here I thought I was all alone my daughter never went through this but my son who is almost three well he likes the picture in the front like his sister so I now buy only underwear that are printed all over or that have a picture in the front.
Goodness, I love your blog. Nothing like a good snort-laugh first thing in the a.m.! I only have a daughter and for some reason all the panties I bought her had design in front or all over so never had to do the makeshift thong experience. Thanks for writing and keeping me laughing!
Guaranteed laughs. LOVE your blog! Although neither of my kids has had this particular "issue". From the get-go they were singing... "The tag goes in the back, the tag goes in the back... hi ho the dairy- o... the tag goes in the back!" Yes, I used to work in a preschool, where it's common to sing every lesson under the sun!
my experience with Dora undies- her face was in the crotch of the two year old. every time she sat down there was Dora staring at me.
I'm with you on the spagetti strap christmas dresses, although all my daughters underpants have pictures in the front. either that or they're all over. maybe it's a weird boy thing?
My daughter once managed to put her underwear on inside out, backwards and sideways- yes all three- not sure how she did it but she did not want me to change it.
My two youngest sons did it for a long time. You are bringing back memories! LOL
Oh, and IMHO the dress manufactures are being lazy and cheap. It is way easier/less expensive to make a dress sleeveless or with straps than add sleeves.
My 5 year old likes Darth Vader on the back. Then he can have an "evil butt."
OMG, yet. My son always wanted the pictures in the front. When he would complain about a wedgie I couldn't understand why only to find out they sure enough were on backwards...he had a nice thong thing going on too. Yes, you would think the underwear makers would come to their senses.
I'm not old enough to have a kiddo in underwear yet. But even if they don't do it on purpose it seems to be the same thing with putting their shoes on the right feet. They have a 50/50 chance of getting the shoes on the right feet or underwear on right, and yet they get it wrong 100% of the time. How is that?! Makes me crazy! You'd think they'd feel the wedgie...
Oh my gosh! My 3 year old does this every single day. He sports a little guy wedgie daily. I finally gave up and let him wear it like that.
Costco had the best Holiday dresses, they almost always have sleeves. As for the underwear, it's taken my poor 3 year old months of coaching to get it on right. I have had both kids confuse a leg for the waistband. I think that is 10 times more uncomfortable.
Little kids and underwear, oi. I tried to go get 2T/3T underwear for my 2 year old that has decided to potty train, the store I went to, doesn't carry it. Seriously?
As for the Christmas dresses, that ticks me off. If you get one of them then you have to put a sweater with it but then that usually covers the prettiest part of the dress! ARGH!
Thats hillarious I hadn't thought about that before but of course...they want to see the picture they don't want it on the back!
My nephew, 15 years, yes YEARS old at the time wore his father's tighty whities one day. He couldn't figure out why they keep falling down all day.
My two year old totally does this. What's even better...he often times has on more than one pair of underwear...can you imagine, a wedgie times two, three, or four?!
Bahahaha! My 3 year old totally wants to wear them backwards as well, but I won't let him and he somehow complies. Glad to know I'm not the only one!!
My youngest twin (3 1/2) LOVES to wear his underwear and pants backwards. I have to tell him several times a day to change it. He does but somehow they never stay fixed. His response "Mommy it makes me Happy"
Thankfully my 3 year old knows the tag goes in the back, so we haven't experienced this. I really wanted to leave a comment though so I could say that my word verification word was "manwort"...hmmm I wonder if they know something we don't.
-Mel
My son did this and so I bought some iron on patch thingies with Buzz Lightyear on them (not thick ones for jeans) and stuck them on the front of all his underwear, worked perfectly!
We live in MN, so yes, it's FREEZING in December. I'm convinced that they make holiday dresses sleeveless so that you have to spend the extra $ on the coordinating sweater.
I totally agree with you on both counts. It's cold during Christmas and Easter but I think manufacturers do that so we have to buy the cute little sweater on the next rack to go over the sleeveless dress.
My 6yo also insists wearing her clothes so the picture/design is on the front. Obviously those things were designed by people who have never phisically dressed a child themselves.
My nephew came over with his new underwear on. Trust me when I say a character right on the front looks a bit more inappropriate than the back. While it may help the child to wear them the right way, it looks so WRONG.
One of my 3 year old twins always insists on wearing his underwear backwards. I figure this is better than him wearing his sister's Princess underwear, so I let him. Daycare must have given up arguing with him as well, because now he is coming home with it backwards as well. (In the morning, I'm able to sneak in on the right way if it's dark enough.)
My 4 yr old wears his undies backwards too if the design is on back. I was lucky enough to find underwear one day with the design all over and bought 3 packages for him! Of course he prefers Lightning McQueen with the pic on the back. /sigh.
It's amazing how picky they are at a very young age. It very hard to fool them.
My son has the exact pair of underwear and he regularly wears them backwards!!!
My 3 yr old won't wear undies yet, he'd rather change his pull up every single time he uses the toilet. The whole thing confuses me. Another confusing concept is "boyfriend jeans" for 6 yr olds, as well as low cut anything in that age range. Let them act their age!
My seven year old has been wearing undies backwards-since he tossed the diaper/pull-up awhile back. I wondered why he refused to turned them around, but now it all makes complete sense.
I don't get why diapers have Mickey mouse or the alphabet on them. Why don't they put something useful for me, like a map of the smithsonian. Or a picture of zac efron.
What *really* confused my son was that he had one pair of underwear that had Elmo on the front. Just as he got pretty good with the whole Lightning McQueen-goes-in-the-back thing, Elmo would throw things off for another week.
We upgraded to underwear without pictures recently because he wanted ones that look like what Daddy wears. Phew!
woohoo! i'm totally going to start following you. i bumped into your blog by a wonderful accident. to answer your question..yes, my son wears his backwards too. i actually have a great pic of him in them in this post: http://pausebuttonplease.blogspot.com/2011/07/funny-babies-awesome-daddy.html
Oh my gosh...YES!!!! My son always wanted to put the design on the front so he could see it. It does make sense that they would want too. It's just too bad underwear makers dont realize that!!!
Yes, potty training my three year old a few months ago and he was persistent on wearing the design in the front. I had this same frustration!
hahahaha.. 'just came back into the time when my youngest was still a kid.. he loves to put his underpants on his head.. and what's worst, he always did it backwards!!
My son did this from 18 months (he potty trained early, you would think that he would be the favorite) until he was 6. Although I was a little sad that he stopped.
My now 3 year old won't wear underwear at all. Commando is his style.
I don't understand the winter dress thing either! I have always been baffled by that!!
Totally! Even with the picture all over, he wants the underpants on backwards.
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