Kids' reactions.

[GreenDragon]

How did your kids react the first time they saw you kilted?

Little background from my side: my wife doesn't want me to wear my kilts around the kids until they're older. She's afraid they'll get confused about the difference between kilts and skirts and think dad's crossdressing.

I don't think so.


Our son is 3. The first time he saw me in my SWK Irish National, i came home from working on a Saturday. I had gone to work kilted. I came in through thefront door and when he saw me his eyes lit up. He asked me "Dad, what is that?" - that was great.

Our Princess will be 2 in February. Showed her the same SWK (i wasn't wearing it, per the wife) in the basement and wrapped it around me the way it would be worn. She ginned and laughed a little. I'm guessing she liked the bright green color.

[Spc. Scott]

My oldest son usually comes up to me and says "I like that kilt" or "I put on my kilt". My younger son is just over a year old and right now his thing seems to be attaching himself to anything that hangs or is shiny. So you can't put flashes on with him in the room and I tend to avoid kilt pins at the moment.

I guess I'll have to wait and see what they think about it in a few years.


edit: I tend to agree with you on the early exposure. I think it will confuse them at all. It's all education.

[Sionnach]

My kids are older- 20, 18, 14, 12. My sons all think it is great. One has a kilt, another is getting one for Christmas- my oldest- and actually it was his comment a few years ago after a ren fest that got the wheels turning for me. My daughter, 18, is a fashion queen- her life is built around current fashion, it is the work she wants to get into- and she was not so enthused at first, but she has come to accept seeing me in a kilt, and she is going to hang out with me this weekend at the Celtic Festival in Tucson. I nurture the hope that if and when she marries she'll let me walk her down the aisle dressed in my kilt (me not her).

All the best.

[Nighthawk]

My son has always been interested in our ancestory, so he loves it. My daughter thinks all males should dress like the Jonas Brothers. Yeah, she lets Disney tell her what to think. So she hates it. I'm not trendy enough, and it embarasses her. Oh well- nothing like a little childhood trauma!

[sdc]

Not MY kids (none that I know of), but I've heard at least two little girls ask their parents "Why is that man wearing a skirt?" while I've been out shopping; in both cases, I also heard the parent say "That's a kilt, which is sort of like a skirt for a man...."

[Phogfan86]

I got my first kilt just a couple of years ago, when my kids -- both boys -- were 14 and 9. Now 16, my oldest thinks kilts are very cool. I think that has little to do with me and more to do with the fact that some of the musicians in the metal bands he listens to wear them. He has an Irish National Thrifty from SWK Thrifty that he really likes and wears now and again with very little regard for others' opinions.

The 9-year-old (9 going on 36) thinks it's important to wear our kilts because they're a powerful symbol of who we are and where we came from. As we were getting ready for a St. Andrew Society meeting a couple of weeks ago, he said that putting on his kilt makes him think about men like William Wallace and Robert the Bruce and all those who died at Culloden. He said we need to honor them by wearing our kilts. I am not making this up.

In short, my kids are all over it.

[ozth3dog]

My daughter, who will be three in two weeks, the first time she saw me in a kilt all she said was, "Wow daddy, that's cool!!". I thought that was great.

[sathor]

: my wife doesn't want me to wear my kilts around the kids until they're older. She's afraid they'll get confused about the difference between kilts and skirts and think dad's crossdressing.

My wife gets nervous because she is really kinda self conscious, and she thinks it brings attention to herself to be near me wearing it. eh, she should be getting used to it though, I think.

[McFarkus]

My foster son (who is 34) does NOT want to see me in my kilt. OTOH his girlfriend thinks it's really cool and is planning on coming with me to the next Chicago kilt night.

My brother's oldest son (who used to post here as Seamus) was the first in the family to be kilted - started wearing his kilt to public high school in Evanston, Illinois his junior year. He passed the insanity to his father who convinced me to get kilted (in exchange for a custom made sporran)

[Rex_Tremende]

I think it's better to expose kids to any concept that you don't want to have to undo later before they have a chance to form an opinion on it. The littlest ones don't usually have any prejudice and see everything new as something of interest. It's only later - admittedly, not much later - that they start figuring out that the people around them have pinned meanings to everything.

You wear a kilt to work? In Cincinnati?

Regards neighbor,
Rex.