Confession - My kids are clothes-aholics
I just finished washing and sorting all of the children’s summer clothes - shorts, capris, dresses, sandals, bathing suits…the warm weather stuff. It was fun! But…
I was FLOORED at the number of clothing items my children have. Where did this come from? Did I really buy this much stuff? How? When? Where? (well, I know the answer to where…can’t beat those Target sales!)
Delaney has 35+ summer dresses. Yes, thirty five. A little overboard, huh? She has two pair of white sandals, and another coming in the mail. This does not include her three pair of crocks, countless pairs of mary janes in multiple colors, and her “everyday” casual Merrills. I washed probably 12 shorts and 20 random short-sleeved shirts for Delaney. I just bought her a new bathing suit, but I think it’s the only one she will fit into this year (but she has four others; three possibly too small, and one too large).
Colin has only a handful of shoes. We have actually bought him two pair of new shoes in the past couple of days, so he now has a pair of sandals, brown shoes, blue shoes and water shoes (plus a few he doesn’t wear and some slippers). Not to bad - that’s reasonable. But Colin has probably 30 short sleeved shirts in different varieties, along with about 15 pair of shorts. But I think that’s fair, right? He is a boy, after all. He doesn’t need dresses and shorts and capris and clamdiggers and skirts and…and…and… Colin does have four bathing suits - yes, FOUR! Why does any one child need four bathing suits?
So yeah, I’m psychotic. I just forget what I have in the attic, and continue to buy thinking the kids need this or that. But the truth is, I would probably buy it anyway, even if I *knew* how much they had. Oh, well… At least I won’t have to wash the kids’ clothes that often this summer.
March 20th, 2008 at 8:42 pm
ok. No More Shopping! You have no excuses.
March 20th, 2008 at 8:59 pm
Tara, I am so there with you on this one. I don’t think Carter will have to re-wear any one outfit in any given month this summer. As for Squishy, well, he is another story. Most of Carter’s clothes were hand-me-downs and by the time Carter was done with them, they had been worn by four different little boys. So, needless to say they have all bitten the dust. So now I need to find clothes for Squish, and Gymboree is having Gymbucks soon…hmmmmm…don’t tell Dan!!!
This means that we have to have a third son now, just so we can get some good use out of all of Cam’s new clothes!
March 21st, 2008 at 5:16 am
Wow, we get given alot of stuff, but not that much!
March 21st, 2008 at 3:37 pm
My kids have similar amounts of clothes, but you are SO much more organized than I am. Usually I just keep stuff in Sam’s drawers till Matt grows into them, and so on down.
My kids all have multiple pairs of shoes because they are always misplacing a single shoe and I have to keep backups to keep them from having to go out barefoot.
March 21st, 2008 at 5:53 pm
I need to do that for Ronnie. I got so used to him wanting to be naked that I stopped getting him clothing. I need to get to a point where I only need to wash once a week for him.
March 24th, 2008 at 1:01 pm
Even my sister-in-law, whose 6 year old daughter had, at one point, more than 40 pairs of shoes in her current size, said to me “Your kids have too many clothes!” She was being a total hypocrite, but not inaccurate. I know my boys have way too much (a couple dressers and closets full of stuff that fits them, plus dozens of huge boxes of stuff to grow into and outgrown stuff), but I can’t stop myself. Did I need to order two pairs of boxers from Hanna after just buying four more from Target? No. Do they need more matching outfits…need is such a subjective word. I’m just such a clothes horse and I can’t pass up a good deal. Plus, I grew up without the brand names so I get excited that I can afford to buy them Gymboree and Mulberribush. I certainly should not be buying more for the baby, given all the hand-me-downs from big brother but…I do.
We are not so bad with shoes…only maybe six pairs each. I consider that pretty good. We’ve never lost a shoe, but that’s because we have a shoe holder to keep them together. I do lose socks, though…