My 4 Year Old Exposes A Design Flaw in Children's Underwear

I still remember the launch of Underoos when I was a kid. It was the ultimate answer to taking your cartoon characters with you wherever you went.  I still recall the TV commercial jingle "Underoos are fun to wear, they're the latest thing in underwear." I do not remember, how many, if any pairs my mother bought us as kids but my perspective on them now as a parent of a 4 year old is definitely different than my love of painted underwear then.

You see, underwear covered with cartoon characters and other scenes have a design flaw that my 4 year old has exposed. The crotch (at least on the male version) interferes with the cartoon scene on the front of his underwear. The stitching and folds in the underwear make for a very poor entertainment experience on the front side of the underwear if you want to follow your favorite cartoon character (please see front an back side-by-side comparison) in picture below.

This design flaw is not lost on my four year old. He wants his Bob the Builder and Buzz Light Year entertainment in full glory. So, he has resorted to putting on his underwear backwards. Yup, he tells us that he wants to see the Big Scene of Bob or Buzz so the right way to put on his underwear is backwards.  I do not need to delve into some of the problems caused when males put their underwear on backwards but suffice it to say that the urinal experience is not perfect.

However, a solution may be in sight. You see, yesterday, my 4 year old put on an article of clothing backwards because he liked the picture in the front. When my wife told him that he could not wear the shirt backwards out of the house, he strode forward, held out the clothing tag and said "Mommy, please cut off the tag! Now it's not backwards."