Southern Girl 101: Children Are to Be Decorated, Not Heard

Southern girls like to monogram.  We monogram shirts, jewelry, handbags, pillows, bed and bath linens, even furniture.  Oh, and we monogram our children.  Okay, we don't stitch letters onto their actual skin - that would be both painful and limiting.  Monogramming their clothing gives you a much wider range of options.

I have yet to find a little boy polo shirt that couldn't be improved with a nice three-letter monogram.  I tend to go back and forth between circle and diamond formats - and, for next year's school uniform shirts, I am branching out and experimenting with a lozenge shape.  Saw that one on the shirt of one of Parker's classmates - it almost looked like a clover - and I have been coveting it ever since.

Girls are even more fun, because you can monogram them top to bottom - from their hair bows down to their shoes.   These moccasins are from The Pink Giraffe and come in both girl and boy colors:

Pillowcase dresses like this one from Sweet Style Boutique were just made for monogramming (literally):

If we had a little girl, no doubt our monogramming bill would be higher.  We'd have dresses, for sure, and also swimsuits.  And swimsuit cover-ups.  And sandals, like these Stephen Bonanno "Lil Emmas":

But we have boys, so I pretty much limit myself to shirts and the occasional sweater vest.  The older one has made it fairly clear that in middle school he will be eschewing the monogrammed uniform shirt, and that's just fine, so long as he understands that Easter and Christmas outfits will continue to bear his initials.  It's a pretty good compromise, actually:  while donning a green-and-white gingham button-down with a red monogram to pose for sibling holiday pics may not fit his definition of cool, it's a lot more palatable than, say, wearing a tie.  Or a sweater vest.  Boy, does he hate vests.
Little brother loves vests, and ties, and monograms.  Note to file:  research monogrammed tie options for the little one.

If it sounds like we treat our kids a little bit like accessories, consider the concept of the sip-and-see:  originally, brides had sip-and-sees so that you could check out their wedding presents, but now it's equally likely that the sip-and-see invite in your mailbox is an invitation to check out a baby.  Possibly a monogrammed one.  If the baby isn't monogrammed, something will be - like the cookies.  These onesie-shaped cookies (individually wrapped so that they can be handed out as favors) are from Truly Scrumptious Bakery in Wisconsin, but they play into the Southern sensibility, for sure:

So if you are Southern and a parent (or have access to a little 'un who is not your own- a niece or nephew, perhaps, or a godchild) and are not monogramming or otherwise objectifying them, well, you're missing out on an opportunity, to be sure.