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Just the thread I was looking for. :-)
I've got one child, a 6-year-old boy. He's not exactly following in his parent's footsteps; I've got a photo of the three of us, mom in black, dad in black, Boy in a green striped tee shirt and blue jeans. *blush* "The Goths Come to Thanksgiving" his dad's cousins called it.
I was curious about other parents and what their experiences are with school, sharing a Dark aesthetic with thier kids, dressing the little monsters, etc. I've enjoyed your comments - lots of knowing giggles - and wanted to ask and share some pointed questions and comments.
What kind of school are your kids in? How do you deal with the school? How does the school deal with you? {This year it's an inner-city charter school. We're different, but so is the rest of the school. Being Anglo, and non-xian, we are the diversity in our school. Since everyone else is considered "the diversity" (black, Hispanic, native American) in the general population, I think that in some weird way we fit in better. Boy is doing great, and I have yet to be treated like last year, when Boy attended a suburban upper-class blue ribbon school. The president of the PTA actually looked right through me on a couple of occasions, and once turned away abruptly as if to change the "subject" from me to someone wearing the same clothing as herself. We were different because of our aesthetic; Boy was different because we didn't believe in the accelerated ECE crap.}
Do you teach your kids about a Dark aesthetic? To love the monsters under their beds? To love the things that go "bump" in the night? How do they receive it? {I'm still trying to convince Boy that dark is good. He's scared of the dark, and although he's happy enough parroting that nothing in the dark will hurt him, I don't think he really believes it. I'm still trying to teach him about cool things like spiders, snakes and bats, and what great critters they are. He's totally panicked at the sight of eight legs. }
Do they like to dress like mom? Or have they rebelled and *shudder* become preppies? Given two shirts, which one will they pick out? The baby blue one with stripes, or the black one with ravens displayed? {*sigh* The cool shirt with the black ravens on it seldom gets chosen. I am proud of him when he gets out the spider shirt or the bats shirt from last Halloween. Of course there is the little matter of the Polo or Oxford shirts he has to wear to school. And khakis. As long as he doesn't decide that school uniforms are "normal" attire....}
What other challenges do you have as a unique sort of parents? {There is the grand-parental pressure of course. At my age, I'm not terribly susceptible to snarky comments. But I do have to figure out how to get grandma to stop buying lime and peacock blue clothing from L.L. Bean for Boy. Other than that, it's all pretty normal parenting stuff. Teaching respect, discipline, focus, accountability, etc. In my case, without squelching critical thought and honest assessment of situations. }
So, I'm interested in what other parents think. No, not *your* parents; you, the Gothy ones with kids.
Thanks!
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