Advice

[GreenDragon]

My (almost 7 year old) son sees my kilts. I don't usually get to wear them out around the wife because she doesn't like them. But when I can, I do.

So my son sees mine hanging in my closet and likes to see me try them on. He tells me he wants one.

Do I get him one? Or should I continue to not rock the boat and wait until he's much older.

My wife thinks he'll be made fun of if he wears a kilt.

[Rob, ClanMacMillan, NM]

When my son was five years old, we bought him a kilt which matched mine. He would only wear it when I was wearing mine. I do not recall anyone ever making fun of him. But, it needs to be said that when he outgrew it, he decided, most emphatically, that he did not want another kilt -- unless it was a camo one -- and I had one to match. We don't have matching camo kilts - yet (he's fourteen now) but I still think about it...

Rob

[1oldsarge]

Other posts cover it well.

[Kilted Jeeper]

My son (now 8) has had a kilts since he was 3. He doesn't wear them very often these days, but he has worn them to school and to the daycare on several occasions with very little harassment from the other kids. I say get it for him, it might just help mom come around.

[ForresterModern]

My now nearly 4 yr old son was in an infant kilt within a couple weeks of being born, actually the same day I first wore my first kilt out to a public event, a local highland games. He wore the infant kilt for nearly two years before outgrowing it and has since had two others, an Altkilt and a nice 16oz wool kilt (baby tank) handsewn by Bonnie Heather Greene. She did a great job with it (I reviewed it here) and included numerous special considerations into its construction to allow for easy alterations so it continues to fit him as he grows through the next several years.

My wife is also not fond of the kilt on me, thinks it is kinda cute on our boy, but definitely does not go out of her way to put him in it except for special occasions. I got her to agree to the custom kilt for him by choosing a tartan she could not argue with, the Dutch Friendship Tartan. My wife is first generation Dutch-American of fullblooded Dutch immigrants, and already had a scarf in that tartan, so it was hard for her to argue with the choice. I also got a tank in the same tartan by Bonnie, so we can go out as a family all in the same tartan. I considered DFT appropriate for me as my family name originated in Flanders and was part of the Norman Conquest of 1066. Tied it all together in a nice neat little proverbial bow.

[Burly Brute]

I say you bargain like the previous posts said. Just say it will only be when you are wearing yours. And slowly wear your lass down. Haha. As many on here know, when I first joined my wife (GF at the time) was emphatically against kilts, but the more I exposed her to them and the culture behind it (also helped her when I started hanging out with fellow kilties) the more it grew on her. Now she just assumes I am going to wear it. I think you need to do whats best for your family. But, come on. Just like I told a kid in a youth group I help lead when he said he didnt carry his bible with him places because he didnt want to get made fun of. I told him that, at least from my experience, people will find something to make fun of you about no matter what, why not make it something that counts? My two cents...

-BB

[Tobus]

Get him the kilt if he wants it. Even if he shuns it later (as kids are wont to do), he can at least say that he was raised wearing a kilt out of a sense of tradition. Even boys in Scotland get made fun of for wearing kilts on occasion. It's just the nature of things, and it can be a good learning experience for him. Not only with respect to learning to rely on his own self-confidence, but for learning why it's bad to make fun of others.

Really, I can't see a down side to it.

[artificer]

I say buy it! If your wife's heart doesn't melt at the sight of your wee man in a kilt (and I can't think of one woman's heart that wouldn't) you can tell her he'll only wear it when you wear yours.

My little guy got his first kilt about 18mths ago. He normally only wears it for special functions, but he's taken a liking to us wearing our kilts to the zoo. Last St. Patrick's Day he wore it to school (it's the Irish National Tartan). A few kids called it a skirt, but he quite innocently and VERY emphatically corrected them. That was pretty much that. He still wears it.

Thanks to Panache's son Sindbad, he has a Loud McLeod that he's just about grown into - which brings his collection to 2.

Now he's angling for a skunk full-mask sporran... Oh, the things we do for our kids, huh?

ith:

[Chas]

Who's child is he? Your's, Your wife's, Or both of you together? Do you not have an equal say in his upbringing? Why should your desires for his future be any less valid than your wife's.

Buy the kilt.

Regards

Chas

[xman]

My son has been wearing a kilt since he was 2. Nobody teases him.