dad-isms

I love my dad.

My dad is the KING of "dad-isms".
You know, Dad jokes, Dad quotes, Dad sayings, Dad trivia.
Dad-isms.

Tonight, while we were hanging out at my parent's house, my dad (with the tell-tale gleam in his eye which preceeds every really great dad-ism) said, "Charlie, I was a little worried that your momma was going to dress you like Little Lord Fauntleroy, but I'm pleased to see that she hasn't."

Eh?
What's that Dad?
"Little Lord Fauntleroy"?

My first reaction to the announcement was that "Little Lord Fauntleroy" had to be another one of my Dad's random names for things: some crazy, made-up name meaning "pansy kid".

The name kind of stuck with me.
It's kind of a silly one.
And fun to say.

After some extensive googling research, I discovered that "Little Lord Fauntleroy" does in fact, exsist.

Are you ready?
According to wikipedia,
Little Lord Fauntleroy is the first children's novel written by English–American playwright and author Frances Hodgson Burnett. It was originally published as a serial in the St. Nicholas Magazine between November 1885 and October 1886, then as a book by Scribner's in 1886.

The Fauntleroy suit, so well-described by Burnett and realized in Reginald Birch's detailed pen-and-ink drawings, created a major fad for formal dress for American middle-class children:

"What the Earl saw was a graceful, childish figure in a black velvet suit, with a lace collar, and with lovelocks waving about the handsome, manly little face, whose eyes met his with a look of innocent good-fellowship." (Little Lord Fauntleroy)


The Fauntleroy suit appeared in Europe as well, but nowhere was it as popular as America. The classic Fauntleroy suit was a velvet cut-away jacket and matching knee pants worn with a fancy blouse with a large lace or ruffled collar. These suits appear right after the publication of Mrs. Burnett's story (1885) and was a major fashion until after the turn of the 20th century. Many boys who did not wear an actual Fauntleroy suit, wore suits with Fauntleroy elements such as a fancy blouse or floppy bow. Only a minority of boys wore ringlet curls with these suits, but the photographic record confirms that many boys did. It was most popular for boys about 3–8 years of age, but some older boys wore them as well. It has been speculated that the popularity of the style encouraged many mothers to breech their boys earlier than before and was a factor in the decline of the fashion of dressing small boys in dresses and other skirted garments.

 
Hmmm...
I'm still trying to decide if I should feel complimented or dissed.
 
I'm going to go with comlimented.
 
I'm not going to lie. I love me some cute kid's clothes. Especially cute, handmade, traditionally southern kid's clothes.
Give me a shortall or smocked dress over a pair of jeans and trendy top any day.
In fact, with the exception of the time that she peed her pants at school and had to wear the school's pants home - Avery has never even worn a pair of jeans.
Neither has Charlie.
I just prefer sweet clothes on sweet little kids.
 
But this - this was never my idea of cute.
 

In fact, that's just plain creepy.

So Dad, for the record - I promise not to dress Charlie like your boy "Little Lord Whatnot".

Sincerely.