While at the park with Cameron this evening, we watched a cute family with four boys getting their pictures professionally taken. The boys were all as cute as can be except for the fact that THEY ALL WORE MATCHING SHIRTS. (Gasp.)
Why do parents do this? Don't parents always look forward to the second child to see how his/her personality differs from their first-born? Then why do they insist on making them wear identical outfits and styling their hair exactly the same way, as if the two kids have no unique qualities of their own? To me, it's a denial of sorts that you have two separate kids or it's almost like you dressed one kid in an outfit you'd planned out, but then you forgot you'd already dressed the first one so you dressed the second kid in the same thing because that's what you had in your head - deja vu! This reminds of what Jerry Seinfeld says about the groom and best man looking virtually identical at weddings - if something happens to the groom, then the best man just slides over and takes his spot and nothing is lost.
My annoyance for matchy matchy also extends to families wearing the same shirt in pictures. I am all for color coordination, but I totally disagree with everyone wearing the same shirt. It's like we're trying to ignore that everyone has separate personalities, and we're just pretending that we all think the same and like the same things for the camera's sake. And let's not forget that not everyone can look good in the same color!
As you can see, I feel strongly about matching outfits...almost as strongly as I do about same-side sitting (don't even get me started on same-side sitting!). Besides, you wouldn't want to end up looking like this family, would you?
Dude, maybe they had a sale on that shirt and only that shirt.
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