The children are different in so many ways. The one jumping to the forefront today is clothing.
Take Stella. She will wear anything. Yes, she likes to put things
together in interesting ways, but she likes just about everything -
shorts, skorts, dresses, skirts. Shirts of every variety. Frilly.
T-shirts. Long sleeve. Short sleeve. Pants that are jeans, tights,
leggings, yoga pants, capris. They're all good.
She also doesn't care if the clothes actually fit her. For instance the other
day her dad told her that her pants were unzipped, to which she said,
"Yeah, that's because they can't zip." Yes, the pants were too small
for her and would no longer zip. She had a hair tie looped through the
button hole around to the button to hold them shut. Just. didn't. care.
Hair ties are also useful when clothes are too big. Tank top sags to your belly button? Why you just wrap up the straps with hair ties until they fit. Skirt too large in the waist? Tie that sucker up with some hair bands and it'll fit you. Bonus that you can wear it NOW and in 4 years when it's actually your size.
Sandis, on the other hand, is very picky. You wouldn't know it looking
at how she dresses. No, you'd think she throws on whatever she finds.
Clean or not. Which is what she does, but from a carefully selected and
honed wardrobe. This wardrobe contains only:
-
Jeans - and not tight jeans. They have to fit, so they don't fall off, but only just. No skinny jeans for this girl.
-
Jeggings - Not just any leggings, they must be jeggings. And you cannot call them jeggings, you must call them jean leggings.
-
Shorts - only jean shorts that fit the above jean criteria, yoga pants style
shorts or soccer shorts. They must come almost to your knees. Except
soccer shorts which may be a little shorter, but certainly mid-thigh at
least. No short shorts (and I'm ok w/that). No capris.
-
T-shirts - the bulk of the wardrobe, t-shirts. These must have
something on them that she likes, a peace sign, a dog, or else be blue.
Preferably both blue and with a picture she likes. And the t-shirts must be at least a size too big.
Bonus points if it will fit her dad (and yes, some of them do.) And only,
only short sleeve. No long sleeve t-shirts. No tank tops. No regular
shirts of any kind.
-
Socks - only if forced. Must be fairly plain so there aren't a lot of
strings inside. And often inside out. (I taught her the inside-out
trick to get rid of the ridge by the toes. This made sock wearing much
easier.)
-
Colors - Blue, blue or blue. Will allow some gray, yellow, green. May
tolerate red or purple. Definitely no pink in any way, shape, form, or
shade.
-
Shoes - crocs, tennis shoes or sandals (if they feel right), flip
flops. Dress shoes cannot have any bows, ruffles, extra straps, flowers
or pointed or excessively rounded toes. Definitely not brown. Or, of
course, pink. Being old and having holes in them, soles falling off, straps broken - bonus.
-
Sweatshirts/fleeces/hoodies - she loves these but they must be big.
Really big. Fit her father big. And she wears them until they are
dirty enough to walk on their own and I threaten to cut them off her
body and throw them away.
- Dresses/skirts/skorts - out of the question
-
Bras - don't even talk about that, mother!
Still, with all these restrictions and complications, we managed to find
holiday outfits for both of them. At Clothes Mentor no less (for those
not local, it's a second-hand women's clothing store.) I would put pics here but it is too early for that. You'll just have to wait!
Want a hint? Sandis' outfit is blue and includes pants. You never would have guessed, right?! Stella has a flow-y dress and some not-so-high heels. Another non-surprise, though there is a vast range from which Stella had to choose while you could guess what Sandis would pick in one guess. Or less.
And I know that I have girls because their jewelry cost more than their
outfits. Granted the outfits were second-hand and the jewelry wasn't.
Still, boys wouldn't have that issue, would they?
Sidetrack (see I'm warning you. You're welcome): Of course, boy outfits have much less variety, in general. My husband
often laments the lack of cool colors in men's running shoes.
Seriously, running companies, they are going to wear these
running in
the woods, not to the boardroom, give them something besides gray,
black, darkblueindisinquisablefromblack. Browsing for the girls at the local Once Upon a
Child, I noticed for boys they had your choice of black, blue, tan and army green pants. That's it. Shirts they'll throw in red, maybe a green or
yellow. Really? I think guys, especially kids, would appreciate a bit
more color. At least they are getting some cool graphics these days.
It used to be your choice of trains, cars or dogs.
Not that those are bad, they just need to be the start, not the entirely.
This is your friendly reminder to
vote. All you do is click, which takes you to the website where you then do nothing. Or you can do something, but you don't have to do something. It's easy. Thanks :)
