A bone to pick over kids’ clothing designs

I moved from Florida to Iowa in 2006 and I love it here - beautiful lush trees, beautiful scenery, very family-oriented. So why is it so hard to find clothes here that do not have cross bones on them? I know that sounds like a petty question but I am serious.

I went to Kmart and picked up this cute bathing suit for my 7-year-old daughter, with what looked like just pink dog bones all over it, but looking a little closer, it was actually a skull and crossbones. I bought a pack of boxers for my 10-year-old son, and of course you don't think to look in the pack to see the design on the boxers, but it turned out that the boxer shorts in there that were black and red had a skull with crossbones on them.

I have never run into this situation with clothes. In Florida, it was just hard to find clothes that weren't all pink for girls and too short for boys. Here the clothes are colorful and they have great sizes but you have to deal with the crossbones.

Is this just a way of saying we are all going to hell anyway, we might as well just wear the mark? I wouldn't be so irritated if it were just adult clothes, but it's little kids!

Andrea Njenga

Cedar Rapids