How do you feel about "family car decals"?

I feel like this.

Ive always found them kind of retarded personally. Kind of like why do I care how many are in your family or their names. But if you like em go for it. I do however like the zombie ones

I love that xkcd can seriously be brought up in just about every conversation and be relevant :p

@uberbatman Oh, I would never list names under them. That’s just dangerous.

yea I’ve thought the same as well, like why openly display that information.

I’m basically baffled by them. I thought the entire point of bumper stickers was to put a bit of personality into your car, not announce that you are actually the most generic person on the face of the planet. They don’t tell me anything about the actual people that are displayed in stick, except that the person who is in charge of car stickers sees their family members as generic stick figures instead of individuals.

The funniest one I’ve seen in person was on a pick-up truck’s passenger side window. It was a man and four women stick figures. Three of the women had an X on them. The fourth, closest to the man stick figure, had half an X and said…soon to be.

In our area they are ubiquitous and they are definitely some sort of sick contest about “how many more people are in my family than your family”..
(Families in our area are considered “small” if you have only 3 kids.)

At our rural elementary school the families typically have 5 or more kids. The stickers tend to not only show all the kids..but also the cats, dogs, hobbies till it stretches all the way across the entire back window of their large Tahoe or Suburban.
Lately I’ve noticed that beneath the stick figure kids are often the names of the children (to match the braggy school stickers on the bumper that read: My child was the Star Student of the Month at Blahblahblah Elementary).
Never ceases to amaze me that people would put their kids’ name & school name ON THEIR CAR and drive all around a metro area of over 3,000,000 people so who knows how many pedophiles can take note.

To wit: about a year ago at a classroom party at my daughter’s school a SAHM chatting with me confided (without a trace of irony) that she is SURE she started the trend of adding these decals because she put them on her (gas-guzzling) Ford Excursion years ago to have a visible defense to others who might be critical of her choice of vehicle. ‘Cause with as many kids as she has she needs that big ol’ vehicle.

If any of the above seems as illogical, warped or downright stupid to you as it does to me…you might enjoy knowing that these are the same people who elected (and then for some idiotic reason RE-elected) Michelle Bachmann.

Annoying. If anything I’d want one with me and twelve cats.

I seriously hate those things. They’re like some horribly tacky middle-class family status symbol. It’s even worse when they start including pets and hobbies. I also dislike elementary school honor roll type stickers and these.

Don’t even get me started on and these oh-so-classy bumper stickers…is even the innocence of “Calvin and Hobbes” not protected from the tastelessness of bumper stickerse?

@Fly LETS TALK ABOUT WHY EVERYONE AND THEIR MOM HAS AN OBX STICKER SHALL WE? rrr!

I like these ones.

[mod says] Let’s keep it civil, people. Don’t drag in arguments from other threads, please.

@Fly What is that CM one?

The only decals on my truck are these. They make for interesting conversation when I drive in Chicago.

@Aethelflaed, Cape May. There are oval, black and white decals people put on their vehicles with abbreviations for a town. It is either where you live or a vacation spot or whatever.

@bkcunningham Thanks!

I like the cute stick figure decals.

I don’t like bumper stivkers that say their kid is an honor student, @fly took those words right out of my mouth. I think they are horrible in so many ways. What if your kid is not honor role next year? Scrape of the sticker? And, what if his/her friends aren’t honor role? And, why are parents telling the neighborhood amd world nanny nanny poo poo, my kid did better than yours in school?

I also don’t like religious stickers or political stickers.

I’m not a fan, but it’s not like I hate them or anything. Just not my thing, I guess.

@jerv I don’t like the violent ones but I love the “me and your mom” one haha

I’ve got bigger fish to fry than get upset at stick figures on someone’s car. I like to have something on my car to distinguish it from the 10,000 other vans that look like ours.

@tranquilsea In FL a lot of the older people had stuff tied to their antenna so they could find their car in the parking lot.

@deni You would hate my license plate frame then; “Too close for missiles, switching to guns”.

@JLeslie @tranquilsea There is no mistaking my car for any other. Maybe you just need to be a little more audacious :D

It does strike me as being very “middle class”.

Though I don’t know how good of a reason that is to look down on it :)

Here are my thoughts on “ZOMFG I HAVE KIDS!!1!” bumper stickers in general:

* ahem *

“Dear Paedophiles:
I am a single mother with a teenaged daughter and three young sons. The kids go to Central Middle/High School, where they’re honour students on the soccer team. That should narrow down their neighborhood and after-school schedule for you. Oh! And if you’ve been casing our house since you followed us come from Youth Service last week, don’t worry about the barking, as our dog is a Peckingese. See the silhouette decal on the window?”

* end scene *

@Seek_Kolinahr HAHAHA! Well, I may have stick figures, but at least I don’t display names and I don’t have a school name sticker. :D

The only ones I can’t stand are those Baby on Board stickers.
What am I meant to do with this information?
Drive more carefully than I already do?
“Oh look, I mustn’t overtake these muppets, coz they have a baba who may well be sleeping…..HONK HONK!!!

LOL!

I can’t find the picture right now, but there was one where all the family members were on the ground bleeding and the guy had a happy face, lol. Who the hell would put that on their car? I think it’s funny but I imagine many wouldn’t.

And what is the OBX sticker?

@Blackberry Ha! I would use those stickers! I try to not be so boring with the stickers I use, which is why I’m so excited to have found zombie ones. I’m the goofy mom that drives her kids around in a giant Suburban, with a bloody arm hanging out the back. I used to only do it at Halloween, but now I like to do it whenever the mood strikes. It’s gotten a lot of laughs and even a few jumps from unsuspecting teachers. =0)

How do I feel? About the stupidest thing I ever saw.

Yeah, @wundayatta So you said earlier. I’d rewrite my comment about the hypocrisy of what you find “stupid”, but it would only get modded again. So I’ll just say that stickers on a car are, by far, less stupid than other things you seem to think are okay. Bye.

Whoa! You asked. I answered. I don’t think it’s fair to attack my opinion. If you don’t like the answers you might get, ask the question in a way that you’ll get answers you like.

Those stickers can be stupid for me, and smart for you. There is no right or wrong here. The only thing you can’t tell me is that I am wrong, because you are not in my head and you don’t know my opinions.

You know, every time you write a question that opens up the possibilities like this, I will answer it as it requires. If you don’t want my opinion, don’t ask for it. But please do keep on asking questions in that way that only you do. Only you seem to be able to release all those rants that are bottled up inside.

LMAO! Seriously. That was hilarious. Go take your medications and meditate under the orange tree. Please.

I will. I will. And the drinks are free, too. You’re welcome to come have a sit and a drink, if you want. Just don’t bring your car.

I’ll bring the stickers and leave the car at home. You can wear them on your face.

My thoughts are pretty much the same as @Seek_Kolinahr. I see no reason to advertise any of that information to everyone else out there. This is also way I didn’t put up yellow ribbons in my yard or decals on my car when my husband deployed.

I tend to be pretty paranoid about letting people know where I am. I don’t understand why people post on facebook they are away on vacation, I feel like that is an invitation to rob my house. But the decals on the car? It is pretty easy to observe kids in a car. Anyone who is interested can case a person pretty easily. Go to any school football or soccer game, follow that family home, learn when the soccer practice are. Anyone who really wanted to do something, God forbid, can figure our soccer practice and ballet class without too much effort.

Agreed.

@JLeslie Why bother? Just track their phone from the comfort of your own living room. I mean, this is the 21st century and all.

@jerv Don’t freak me out more than I am already.

I was thinking about the decals today as I was enjoying the day, casually riding in my golf cart looking at all the things people who live around me here do to give character to their rides. There are things you can’t even begin to imagine. College colors, doggie seats, inventive ways to carry groceries, carts that look like cars…or like us; NY Giants custom colors (even on our upholstered seats!)

I wondered why I was almost ashamed to admit that I loved those stupid stick figures from the minute I saw the first set on the back of a small SUV showing a couple with two cats and a dog. Because they are cutsey? Because it is most likely a woman who thought they were cute and wanted to put them on the back of her mini-van? Because it is such a simple idea and someone made a wad of money on selling stick figure decals to middle class moms? I dunno. Maybe because when I first saw the decals of the couple and their pets, I started singing “Our House, is a very, very fine house. With two cats in the yard….”

What is wrong with being cutesy or feminine or wanting to advertise your family status or making a wad of money on a silly idea? Why turn it into something more than it is and use it as an opportunity to make it a divisive sort of thing?

Just as an aside, those “baby on board” things were originally designed to alert rescue personnel to the presence of an infant in the case of an accident.

Thinking about this more, the car stickers that I just can’t wrap my head around are the ‘in memory of’ ones. I find it very odd to use a vehicle that you won’t own forever as a memorial to dead relatives.

Yeah, I think those are sort of odd as well.

I think they’re funny @WillWorkForChocolate. There’s nothing wrong with being proud of your humorous family.

I particularly like the “We ate your stick family” saying but prefer the stick figure zombies

I love the zombie decals. And in general, I think the family stickers are both cute and a bit obnoxious. But the zombies totally take care of the obnoxious part.

@Fly I see funny place-name decals sometimes. The best was this.