So, I was driving in my swagger wagon Tuesday and I thought about the Carly's rain boots. It was a rainy day and she loves to wear her rain boots so she can jump in the puddles. She knows she is not allowed to if wearing her regular shoes. Well, when we put her boots on (which she hadn't worn for a few months due to the dry spell) we noticed they were getting slightly tight. Not to the hurting her foot stage but to the hard to get on and off stage. So, I realized that we needed to get her a new pair. Alas, the cute little yellow ones with flowers and birds will be put away in a box awaiting the day that Alyssa will have feet big enough to wear them.
That got me thinking about Alyssa's clothes. At this time she is able to wear only a small portion of Carly's clothes b/c their seasons are off. Carly was born in May and Alyssa in August. For some reason, the thought came into my mind, "when will Alyssa hate wearing hand me downs?" You see I was the only girl in my family (I have two older brothers) so I didn't have hand me downs. At what point do they act like the girl in the Tide commercial and want their "own" clothes. For that matter, most of Carly's clothes come from consignment stores and sales. So, it's not like she actually gets all new clothes. We do buy both of them a portion of new clothes to meet needs and my mom LOVES to buy them dresses. So they do get some new clothes.
Is it okay to let Alyssa just wear her big sister’s clothes or do I need to get her clothing of her own? I guess I could sell Carly’s clothing and use that money to pay for Alyssa’s. Of course, I have my favorite outfits of Carly’s that I love to put on Alyssa. It takes me back!
So I was just wondering, what’s your opinion? At what age does Alyssa get her own clothes?
What I don't understand is that if an outfit has such memories for the older child, why would you want them to go to the younger child? Let's use an easter dress as an example. Let's say your older child wore it and her last picture of child #1 and Aunt Susie was in that dress. Such a sweet memory. Then child #2 wears it and gets a HUGE stain on it. Dress ruined, child #2 ruined it (surely not on purpose, but still), now you can't look at it and remember dear Aunt Susie, but #2s ability to mess up such a special dress for #1.
ReplyDeleteTshirts and jeans - sure, pass them down. But nostalgic clothes should only belong to the one for whom the memory was created.
Take this with a grain of salt though - we got rid of everything of SB's that wasn't "important" for her as soon as she outgrew it. And now our #2 is a boy, so no sharing there anyway. And if we do have another girl, they'll be over 4 years apart in age and no guarantee of matching on seasons, so why bother?
Sell the clothes at consignment and get each child their own clothes!
We do almost all hand-me-downs- but we buy brand new for our oldest, so the clothes will last. 3 boys though, so I think they'll care less for longer than girls would. I would say don't worry about it until they do. No 2 month old is going to care whether she's wearing hand-me-downs or not.
ReplyDeleteThat said, we are to the point now where Scott has a few things that are just his... he wore a Clemson (James Davis) jersey for 3 years (it was big when we got it) and last spring when it was pretty tight, I put it away for him- no one else will wear it (unless he decides to put it on his own little one someday.) The younger brothers typically get at least one new outfit, from grandparents or whatever. I like for them to have one or two things that were purchased specifically for them.
I totally get what you mean about seeing Alyssa in Carly's baby clothes. It brings back sweet memories :) We actually have one outfit that all 3 boys wore in their first week and it's fairly neutral, so I can't wait to put it on this baby in a couple months.
My daughter wears her cousin's hand me downs. She is 7 and still loves the clothes she gets from her cousin. Now, I will say, it seems there are less clothes to pass down as they get older, since they wear out faster...just my own observation for our situation. What I do, is give my daughter half hand me downs and also buy her some of her own clothes. That way, she has plenty of clothes and still gets to pick out some stuff she really likes. I've had no issues so far with her not liking it. :)
ReplyDelete