I was chatting with a friend over coffee the other day. She was regaling me with tales of taking her son and daughter shopping, and how she’d spent hours in various change rooms watching her clothes-loving divas try on dozens of combinations.
Hmmm, I found myself thinking. Have I ever been in a change room with my kids? In fact, have I ever let them choose their own clothes in a store? I honestly can’t remember a single time. Last month I showed Tristan a handful of open browser windows and let him choose between three styles of deeply discounted shorts I had picked from the website of one of my favourite stores, does that count?
Lucky for me, the kids are not terribly fashion-conscious. Yet, I should probably add. I get most of their clothes either on sale at a few favourite stores, frequented on lunch breaks from work, or from the ultra-convenient clothing section in the middle of the grocery store. (Those people are smart, I tell you, putting decent quality, affordable clothes right there in my face like that. Convenience trumps all!) And we have a magic clothing Granny-fairy who occasionally deposits bags of new clothes for the boys on the porch while we’re at work. Aside from having to make a few returns for sizing issues, I’ve never had a boy reject a piece of clothing I’ve bought for him.
But after listening to the tales of my colleague, I’m curious. Do you shop for clothes for your kids or with your kids?
(This post was also inspired by my friends at Fisher-Price and Mom Central Canada. Disclosure: I am part of the Fisher-Price Play Panel and I receive special perks as part of my affiliation with this group. The opinions on this blog are my own.)
I have one of each, a 12 year old boy who I feel sure at the moment will let me buy his clothes until he is 20 (although he did pick out a superman logo t shirt the other day in a store) and I have a nearly 10 year old daughter who now turns her nose up at things I bring home. I anticipate only having to do half of the back to school shopping, and bringing my daughter along with me to pick for herself 🙂
OMG, reading this post makes me realise how much of a shopaholic I am! I remember when the kids were infants, going to Bayshore and trying on clothes at the Gap in the wheelchair stall because it was the only one that would fit the double stroller and an armful of khakis and tops. Elliott would invariable escape and peep under the stalls at other shoppers just to make the whole ordeal more interesting. Ugh.
Now that they’re older, I have to take them along on my shopping trips in order to buy the right size. I think of them as my babies so the clothes I end up buying on my own are way too small. Thankfully they’re not brand conscious (even Audrey (14) loves Bluenotes and it’s not too expensive) so a trip to Zellers is okay with all of them. I can even get them to go to the Sally Ann for some “retro” cool outfits so shopping is still fun. In fact, all this talk about shopping makes me need another fix. I wonder which kid needs something (anything?)
There’s nothing I hate more than shopping for clothes for myself, so it almost never happens – but when it does, I usually just pick up my size at a couple of stores that I know fit me well, and that’s that. If I were trying something on with a kid pulling at my sleeve, there’s no question I’d run away without buying! As for the kids, we almost never have them try things on, either. I hold it up and guesstimate, then return things later if there’s a real problem. I’m starting to wonder if I remember what the inside of a changeroom looks like!