Personalizing Shirts

[Momto3cuties]

Maybe I am a bit paranoid...I have seen quite a few adorable embroidered shirts for Disney. Cute ones with Mickey pirates, etc. - many of them say free personalization with the Disney font. Would you put your child's name on the front of a shirt that they would be wearing to Disney? I have two boys, ages 5 and 3 (and a one year old daughter) and we've already had the stranger talk with them. But if someone called them by name, not sure they would think that person was a stranger. Of course, I can order the shirt without their name or perhaps even put something cute on it, like Aarghh! or Captain...
What are your thoughts?

 

[SnowWhite12]

I can't answer about a shirt (just b/c I've never done it), but I do put my daughter's name on her b-day button whenever we go during her b-day week. I just explain they knew her name b/c it's on her button.

 

[scarlet_ibis]

My kids are never out of arm's reach of me, so not an issue.

 

[catgirl]

We put our name on all our shirts (iron on). You get a lot of attention from the CM's, characters, & guests. I think it add's to the magic, DN forgets they are there and is amazed how everyone seems to know our names. We do not wear these outside of Disney.

 

[dizneechic]

We put our name on all our shirts (iron on). You get a lot of attention from the CM's, characters, & guests. I think it add's to the magic, DN forgets they are there and is amazed how everyone seems to know our names. We do not wear these outside of Disney.

Exactly what we do too! The kids have their names, ours say Mom & Dad. It's hysterical to have a CM come up to you and say "hi mom"... my kids always look so perplexed.

 

[Britgirlus]

Normally, I avoid shirts with my son's name on - but am having a great time picking out designs for our shirts for Disney !! Some will have our names on, some our family name, and some, like a pp, will have Daddy, Mommy and Son My son is 6, never out of my sight, so I don't see any problems at all

 

[v.t.]

If the kids have their names on the shirts they will get a lot more attention and it does make it more magical. You have had the stranger talk so you should be fine. It is our policy to find a CM at the entrance of each park, introduce the kids to them and have the CM show them the name tags and explain who the good helpers are. If you do this you should be fine.

 

[Zeebs]

Unless you never call your children by their names people can easily find out a name.

We did it for the MNSSHP we all had personalised shirts I had made. Cullen thought it was very cool to have a shirt with HIS name on it. Being uncommon he never sees stuff with his name on it.

Kirsten

 

[daisyduck123]

Names on shirts?? No big deal, IMO.

If anyone wants to know my kids' names, all they have to do is stand beside us for a couple of minutes & they'll hear or DH or me saying their names.

I have put my kids' names on everything...backpacks, shirts, hats, etc.

 

[kim532]

For me, first name is OK and my son is never more than 5 feet from me.

On our last trip a well-meaning in-law bought our son a personalized shirt with his first and last name. It freaked me out. I was nice and my son wore the shirt once in the giver's presence but it got pitched shortly after returning home.

Kim

 

[2gr8DisneyKids]

I was too paranoid to do the names... so we put "March Break 2010"

 

[Momto3cuties]

Thank you all for your great advice and thoughts. I love vt's idea of introducing the kids to a CM, showing them the name tag's and explaining that they are a good helpers. Thanks, we will be sure to do that!

And I think my boys would love to have a shirt with their names on it, as their names are not common ones either.

My concern was more in response to a parent that made a comment to my husband at our son's school the other day. She was telling my husband how dangerous it is to have our son's name on his backpack (he has a personalized LL Bean backpack). She pretty much told him we were asking for him to be abducted. I drive him to school, walk him to his K door, and pick him up from that same door at the end of the day. Unless he is being abducted by aliens, I think he is OK with his personalized backpack!

 

[design_mom]

She was telling my husband how dangerous it is to have our son's name on his backpack (he has a personalized LL Bean backpack). She pretty much told him we were asking for him to be abducted. I drive him to school, walk him to his K door, and pick him up from that same door at the end of the day. Unless he is being abducted by aliens, I think he is OK with his personalized backpack!

It sounds like you're right, I'm sure your son is fine with his personalized backpack -- and I'm sure he'd be fine at Disney in a personalized shirt, too. He's unlikely to be unchaperoned in either instance. However, practically ALL the "keep your kids safe" literature does say that personalized things can be dangerous because kids are much less likely to consider the person a "stranger" if they use the child's name. A kid's walking home from the bus and a guy says "Hey Billy, I'm a friend of your mom's. She asked me to meet you because she had to run an errand..."

Personally, I probably wouldn't do the personalized shirts. Not necessarily for safety reasons, but because it ruins the hand-me down potential. Your younger DS won't want to wear a hand-me down shirt that has his older brother's name on it. (I hand down to my cousin's son.) I think "Arrrrgggh" or whatever would be just as cute. But, if you're not planning to hand it down, then that wouldn't be a big deal.

 

[LisaNJ25]

Names on shirts?? No big deal, IMO.

If anyone wants to know my kids' names, all they have to do is stand beside us for a couple of minutes & they'll hear or DH or me saying their names.

I have put my kids' names on everything...backpacks, shirts, hats, etc.

Same here, especially my youngest, Everyone knows his name by the time we leave a store.

I have no problems with it on anything.. disney or at home.

 

[Disney Dad Canada]

"Stranger danger", while it does happen, is an extremely rare event. 2008 statistics show that the odds of a child being taken by a stranger is approximately 1 in 1.5 million. Odds of dying as a passenger of a car: 1 in 228.
To put it another way, your child is 700 times more likely to get into Harvard than to be abducted by a stranger.

While horrific to the families that it happens to, it simply happens so infrequently that it shouldn't even be worried about at all. It's much more worrisome that we are taking childhood fun away from children by over protecting them.

http://missingchild.wordpress.com/2006/08/17/how-dangerouus-is-childhood-cont/

 

[gisgt]

"Stranger danger", while it does happen, is an extremely rare event. 2008 statistics show that the odds of a child being taken by a stranger is approximately 1 in 1.5 million. Odds of dying as a passenger of a car: 1 in 228.
To put it another way, your child is 700 times more likely to get into Harvard than to be abducted by a stranger.

While horrific to the families that it happens to, it simply happens so infrequently that it shouldn't even be worried about at all. It's much more worrisome that we are taking childhood fun away from children by over protecting them.

http://missingchild.wordpress.com/2006/08/17/how-dangerouus-is-childhood-cont/

ITA! Although I ran into the same wall re: hand me downs. I try to limit myself to the trip shirts now, so my youngest doesn't have an identity crisis. I am thinking about doing initials and pleading dyslexia since they're JT & TJ

 

[kim532]

Same here, especially my youngest, Everyone knows his name by the time we leave a store.

I guess that is true with me too.

"Stranger danger", while it does happen, is an extremely rare event. 2008 statistics show that the odds of a child being taken by a stranger is approximately 1 in 1.5 million. Odds of dying as a passenger of a car: 1 in 228.
To put it another way, your child is 700 times more likely to get into Harvard than to be abducted by a stranger.

Very interesting. I would have thought is was higher.

Kim

 

[scarlet_ibis]

Jumping in to recommend John Walsh's "The Safe Side" DVD for a not-so-scary discussion of stranger danger for kids. My wiglets are 6 and under and have actually asked Santa for this DVD, they liked it that much. We got it from the library and watched it a few times over the course of a week, but it definitely made an impact. I can still talk about "safe side adults" and "kinda knows" and "don't knows" and they understand.

 

[Texasscuba]

"Stranger danger", while it does happen, is an extremely rare event. While horrific to the families that it happens to, it simply happens so infrequently that it shouldn't even be worried about at all. It's much more worrisome that we are taking childhood fun away from children by over protecting them.

Teach your kids that ALL PEOPLE are strangers when away from home, even if they know their name. And let them be kids and have fun.

 

[robinbutterfly]

I personally would NOT get their names on it... no way. I put my son's initials on his bookbag not his name because I have heard that it isn't good to have names on things for younger kids.