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Growing like weeds
It's summer, and time to go through the seasonal clothing switch, where long pants and sweaters and mountains of winter stuff are swapped for short sleeves and shorts.
So I have a couple of questions for y'all.
How do you shop?
Are you and all-year-round shopper, or do you shop only at certain times of year? I tend to shop only 2-3 times a year... I get some stuff around Christmas, make some kind of spring run and a back to school run. But many moms I know are constantly scouring for deals and cute things all year long.
Are you a list shopper or do you wing it? I start with a list of things the kids seem to not have enough of (socks, pants for one, tshirts for another, etc.) but often find things that thrill me for cuteness or value etc. that I pick up regardless.
Do you shop online or in store? Do you have brands or stores that you prefer? Shipping to Canada is often very expensive, so I only shop online if stores have actual Canadian online-storefronts (Gap and Old Navy did this in the past year!) I hate being in stores. I hate people in my space and talking to strangers. I can do it if I psych myself up and have a planned list
Do you buy your kids clothes on your own or is there some kind of child trying-on/approval participation? Other than shoes, I am currently still lucky enough that I can pick out stuff that my kids usually like. I mentally couldn't handle all three of them trying to tell me what they want at once. It would be bad.
New, used or a mix of both? I do most of my shopping consignment, which started as a resolution a few years back to "buy nothing new" and has turned out to be largely cost effective and thanks to lots of high-end consignment places, very reasonable in terms of quality. Generally I'll try our area's used places first and if I don't find what I needed then I consider new.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Zealflyer on -
We get family hand-me downs for both of the kids. I also get clothes for $1 a bag at a local family centre that I frequent. Other then that, if I'm missing something, I'll hit the local Sally Anne or consignment shop. Usually, the only place I buy new is Superstore, where I pick up the $5 clearance shirts for Mr. Questions (he's really skinny and long through the torso so second hand shirts are often too short and wide for him). I try to shop year-round, in advance of when stuff is needed. I find that when I wait until I desperately need something for the kids then I either can't find what I want, or have to pay too much for it (anything more than $5 is too much in my opinion). My kids are no mini fasionista's, but I am particular about what kind of clothes they are wearing - especially my son, as I find many boys clothes to be objectionable.
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Permalink Reply by Andromeda on -
We buy most of D's clothes second-hand at the thrift store. for some reason my husband is really good at finding clothes for him at the thrift store and i am really bad. i usually can't find ANYTHING in his size. plus he's really skinny so finding pants that fit in the waist and don't look like high-waters is hard. i'll occasionally buy new clothes for him at target or something but not that often.
RoRo gets D's hand-me-downs but so far we've had the problem where MOST of the clothes coming down from D are in the opposite season of what we need. most of D's 3T clothes that Ro can now fit in are winter clothes! so back to the thrift store for Ro too.
I'll also occasionally pick up pieces here and there at Costco. Especially PJs. but i find they run a little small.
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Permalink Reply by Zealflyer on
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Wow! I'm impressed that your husband has an eye for the thrift shopping. The Curmudge has found some nice stuff for my son before (usually after I have mentioned that I buy all the clothes), but the sizing is always wrong. And it doesn't help that Mr. Questions usually has about a two-size gap between his pants and his shirts. (He's wearing a five in tops and threes on the bottom right now).
Andromeda said:We buy most of D's clothes second-hand at the thrift store. for some reason my husband is really good at finding clothes for him at the thrift store and i am really bad. i usually can't find ANYTHING in his size. plus he's really skinny so finding pants that fit in the waist and don't look like high-waters is hard. i'll occasionally buy new clothes for him at target or something but not that often.
RoRo gets D's hand-me-downs but so far we've had the problem where MOST of the clothes coming down from D are in the opposite season of what we need. most of D's 3T clothes that Ro can now fit in are winter clothes! so back to the thrift store for Ro too.
I'll also occasionally pick up pieces here and there at Costco. Especially PJs. but i find they run a little small.
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Permalink Reply by The Oracle on -
Srsly, where are the five- to seven-year-old boys who AREN'T skinny? I'm mystified about who they're using as size standards for boys that age when they're designing clothes.
Andromeda said:We buy most of D's clothes second-hand at the thrift store. for some reason my husband is really good at finding clothes for him at the thrift store and i am really bad. i usually can't find ANYTHING in his size. plus he's really skinny so finding pants that fit in the waist and don't look like high-waters is hard. i'll occasionally buy new clothes for him at target or something but not that often.
RoRo gets D's hand-me-downs but so far we've had the problem where MOST of the clothes coming down from D are in the opposite season of what we need. most of D's 3T clothes that Ro can now fit in are winter clothes! so back to the thrift store for Ro too.
I'll also occasionally pick up pieces here and there at Costco. Especially PJs. but i find they run a little small.
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Permalink Reply by Andromeda on
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right? at least some pants come with the adjustable elastic inside the waist.
people will often remark on how tall my boys are too. i joke that i don't have children, i have earthworms.
The Oracle said:Srsly, where are the five- to seven-year-old boys who AREN'T skinny? I'm mystified about who they're using as size standards for boys that age when they're designing clothes.
Andromeda said:We buy most of D's clothes second-hand at the thrift store. for some reason my husband is really good at finding clothes for him at the thrift store and i am really bad. i usually can't find ANYTHING in his size. plus he's really skinny so finding pants that fit in the waist and don't look like high-waters is hard. i'll occasionally buy new clothes for him at target or something but not that often.
RoRo gets D's hand-me-downs but so far we've had the problem where MOST of the clothes coming down from D are in the opposite season of what we need. most of D's 3T clothes that Ro can now fit in are winter clothes! so back to the thrift store for Ro too.
I'll also occasionally pick up pieces here and there at Costco. Especially PJs. but i find they run a little small.
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Permalink Reply by Andromeda on
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Also, I'd like to know how there are boys out there who aren't putting holes in their knees? Dorian can put holes in them in 1-5 wearings. how are there pants with no holes at the thrift store?
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Permalink Reply by mightyninjamom on -
I don't know - Big B has his father's habit of always leaning on his left knee, so that one goes out before the right one does. And somehow the Little Miss has managed to start doing so as well! Luckily she doesn't put holes in her jeans quite as fast as B does, so the two pairs that have holes are a bit too small in the leg, so they'll be cut into shorts.
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Permalink Reply by Mamawho on
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GirlWho has the grace of a newborn foal on a frozen pond, so she blows out the knees of her jeans before she outgrows them. They become fishing/playing in the mud jeans and then get cut off for shorts in the spring. She is the Buttless Wonder, so they fit her waist and butt far longer than they would fit in the length, anyway.
Even as a baby, she had no fat on her butt. When she potty trained, we despaired of keeping her pants up, as her diapers had performed that service. In only underwear, her britches could not hold up against gravity. Lots of adjustable waistbands and slim sizes and safety pins and dresses.
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Permalink Reply by Zealflyer on
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We had the same problem with Mr. Questions - as soon as the giant cloth diaper came off, the pants fell down. I think that he pretty much just wore sweats for about a year. Now we have a good selection of adjustable waist pants and those do the job. Cozy Trouble is all-round small and is still mostly wearing 12 mo. clothes, despite the fact that she will be two in September.
Mamawho said:GirlWho has the grace of a newborn foal on a frozen pond, so she blows out the knees of her jeans before she outgrows them. They become fishing/playing in the mud jeans and then get cut off for shorts in the spring. She is the Buttless Wonder, so they fit her waist and butt far longer than they would fit in the length, anyway.
Even as a baby, she had no fat on her butt. When she potty trained, we despaired of keeping her pants up, as her diapers had performed that service. In only underwear, her britches could not hold up against gravity. Lots of adjustable waistbands and slim sizes and safety pins and dresses.
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Permalink Reply by mightyninjamom on
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Hahahaha! Same trouble here with the Little Miss. When it came time to buy her underwear, I had to buy it two sized smaller than the rest of her clothes!
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Permalink Reply by mcglory13 on -
Buying clothes? Huh? This would imply that your kid has grown enough to need new clothes. As long as mine hovers in the 10% of weight he just keeps wearing the same shit. We finally weeded out the 2T and 3T clothes, but he's still wearing 4T easy in shirts and pants (and he's 5.5 years old). We've picked up some stuff during super clearance sales here or there, but in general he's been the same size for about two years.
The tearing the knees out thing is new, and frequent, and is going to require me to keep my sewing machine handy for adding patches. We just bought him new shoes because he'd destroyed the two pairs he had. But he's the same size.
It seems like he's getting taller... but he's not growing like a weed, that's for sure. :)
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Permalink Reply by hermit crab on -
We've got the other variety here. The bub seems to take after my side of the family with the fireplug-type body shape. There's no fat on him, but he looks like one of those early 20th century prize fighters to me. He usually outgrows the waist before the length on his pants. I tried making him some because he always wants elastic-waist pants but I lack time/patience to make them fit him correctly, so back to the thrift stores and Osh Kosh B'Gosh sales for us, I guess.
I used to love the Children's Place sales and always found those pants to be well made, but they're designed for thinner-waisted kids, I think.
The Oracle said:
Srsly, where are the five- to seven-year-old boys who AREN'T skinny? I'm mystified about who they're using as size standards for boys that age when they're designing clothes.
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