I have a confession to make...

You mean at that age they go to the mall? My girl just turned 3 and I was hoping to avoid that for another 10 years. Your daughters will think you are cool until the boys start noticing. Then it is either 20 steps ahead or 20 steps back and no public affection.

Man, there is nothing wrong with buying cute Hello Kitty stuff for your twin 3 year old daughters. Heck, who do you think that stuff is made for? But if you start buying it for yourself, well, that is a different story. If you get yourself a Hello Kitty wallet there will be no amount of t-bagging that you can do that will allow you to reclaim your status as a man. However, that only applies to the good ole USA as far as I know. When I was in Japan (just for 10 days) I noticed that there doesnt seem to be the same stigma of cutesy cartoon stuff only being for children and/or little girls. I saw plenty of adults with all sorts of stuff that would get you laughed at over here. I saw a particularly striking example of this while on a train one morning. A very well dressed middle-aged man got on the train. We are talking black suit and tie, wingtips, matching briefcase, cufflinks, the whole deal. He would have been at home on Wallstreet. Then I hear this crazy musical ringtone and he reaches into his pocket and pulls out the most insane looking phone I have ever seen. It had blue and pink neon lights running around it and the antenna had a flashing blue LED in it. To cap it all off it had a keychain of the cartoon character "The Tick" hanging off of it. That is the moment that I knew for sure I was experiencing a culture that was very different from my own. At first I thought his phone was weird, but then I thought, dang, that must be nice to be able to have a funky looking phone with a cartoon hanging off of it and still be a respectable businessman. Can you imagine that here in the USA? If you were sitting at a bank and dealing with a professional looking loan officer when suddenly his phone rang and he pulled out some neon-lit thing with a cartoon keychain, what would you think? Anyways Wally, Im just amazed that you could take a pair of 3-year-old girls to the mall and live to tell about it. Sounds like a recipe for trouble if you ask me...

Man, I love twins. Mind if I give them a call in about 18 years from now ?

Ahhh, Wally, golly gosh...thats so precious;-)

My wife and I lived in Japan for about a year and a half. I can totally identify with what Cranefolder experienced. It was a little off-putting at first, but the Japanese have a different mentality about "macho" for sure. The Hello Kitty stuff was huge while we were ther (about 5 years ago) its funny that its becoming popular over here now. All I can say is that Im glad I have two boys :) Although I did use a Kerochan (cute little frog character) backpack while in Japan. Its cool that you are teaching your girls fiscal responsibility at a young age, and of course its O.K. to spoil them!

Dan = gutter Wally, enjoy it man! Next thing you know theyll be 10 (like my daughter) and you cant buy a damn thing they like anymore. Shes not really that bad, but she sure is getting pickier by the day. Training to be a woman I guess. Oh s---, did I say that out loud?

Nothing wrong with you Wally..You sound like a great daddy. I only wish our daughter still liked the cute little girl stuff, but shes going to be 14 in a couple of weeks..The older they get, the more expensive stuff is.. *SIGH* Fortunately though, shes not real interested in fashion..She doesnt "run with the in crowd" and she doesnt give a rats ass what everyone else has..Shes her own person.. And thats awesome that you are teaching your girls how to handle money.. :D