Family Car Stickers: Cute or Crass?
Do we need to talk about those family car stickers? You know, the stick figures where each adorable sticky represents someone in your family, right down to the goldfish bowl?
These seemingly innocuous figures are creating a lot of debate in the car pool. Do you love them or hate them? Do you think they are cute, but would never put them on the back of your car? Or do you think they are an abomination?
I fall somewhere in the middle. I would never put them on my SUV. And I guess I do like to ponder the athletic abilities of the kids in the minivan in front of me, or wonder how they fit 5 kids in there. But I'm just not sure that I need that information about every family who is parked beside me at the shopping centre.
Maybe I'm just jealous: there aren't stickers that describe my family at all. My boys are not sporty, and I haven't seen a sticker representing a kid playing XBox or Minecraft. I'm pretty sure that a Halo sticker would be illegal. Though, while researching this post, I did find hunting accessories for your stick family, so maybe not.
The stickers seem to represent traditional values which may be why they inspire such devotion and hatred. Usually, there is a heterosexual family with multiple kids holding gender-appropriate items and some kind of pet.
The girls are often holding a jump rope or wearing a tutu, the boys have a hockey stick or soccer ball. The parents also fall in line -- the dad with a briefcase, the mom with a cell phone. A Twitter friend wondered if the people are defined by the objects they hold. What if they change their mind and drop out of soccer or ballet? Do you change the sticker, or is that how they must be seen by the outside world?
Do the babies grow up? Do the toddlers eventually get switched to soccer-playing youths? Or does a sense of malaise set in and you continue to have the family stickers representing what you've long ago grown out of?
There are even angel stickers for family members that have passed on. I am all for talking about miscarriages and death, but to advertise it on your car seems like a little much.
I am not a fear-monger, but I was surprised to see that people put their names on their vehicles -- which does seem strange. Or they make fun of themselves -- see the "Ass" family with Smart, Wise, Dumb, Lazy and Cute.
I think we can agree that that's going too far. Can't we? (But these ones are kind of geeky funny.)
Tell me: do you love your stickers? Or do you want to rear-end the car in front of you when you see them? Or are you somewhere in-between?
Want more chaos? Last year, I was shocked when Tori was pregnant again. Is it too much?
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