12 year old daughter going Goth!

How do you let your kids express themselves with their attire and clothing? Where do you draw the line?

At age 12, I wasn't wearing all black with skull imprints! Well, to be fair, what she picked out was a black tee that said something about penguins and insanity. Kind of silly. Not offensive. No graphics with disturbing images. She picked out another black tee that had a bar code on it and a skull logo on the back.

She informed her mother and I today that her "signature" colors were purple and black. This was confirmed after she took her $84 for Christmas and bought a $75 pair of Adio shoes with a purple HIM symbol on it. I'm not sure, but she may be thinking of look like this.

What is she getting into?

I asked the people in Hot Topic and in Journeys what the HIM heartagram symbol meant and they all said "it's just their band logo". The Journeys gal said "Adio asks these skaters like Bam to design skater shoes. Bam put the heartagram symbol on the shoes because he likes HIM so much."

Turns out I've seen the Viva La Bam episode where he turned his house into a skate board park while his parents were away. I remember thinking that I didn't want my kids to watch this. I did enjoy the show, however.

"What kind of music do they play?" I asked.

"Heavy. Very heavy."

My daughter, overhearing this said, "You know Slipknot? Kind of like that."

I said, "You know I don't let you listen to Slipknot. And just because you have their symbol on your show don't think you can listen to HIM."

Writing this know I imagine some of you are thinking I'm too strict. What are you thinking? Post a comment! They are moderated by me, of course.

Why?

I'm guessing that my daughter is trying to fit in to a crowd or connect with some of her peers. Clothing and attire tend to define socially what the kid thinks and feels.

So I'm looking around the net trying to learn about this heartagram and HIM; these things that are suddenly so important to my daughter.

The symbol

I found this interpretation: "The Heartagram is indeed associated with the awesome ... band HIM. It is a pentagram and a heart. The pentagram is commonly associated with evil and the heart for love. Thats the theme...love and despair, the balance of good and evil, life and death."

Well. The wife doesn't have a problem with the HIM band symbol on the shoes. She says it doesn't look like a pentagram.

Ain't skeered

Let me get something straight. Its not that I'm saying this symbol has any power, per se, it's the message. Its all the auxiliary, peripheral implications that go along with it.

Regardless of the symbols' possible meanings. Check out the HIM lyrics. Final analysis: I don't think I want my daughter advertising for this band.

Well. Thanks for letting me work this out here. Come back to see how it goes!