Is anyone else finding it hard to find clothes for little girls (size 7/8, etc.) that don't try to make little girls look like teens or, worse even, young adults? I'm just amazed at the lack of conservative clothes available for my little girl. I don't want her, at 7 years old, to look like a teen or young adult, but I don't want to have to spend a fortune on Hannah Anderson type clothes either. Boys clothes, not as bad. IMO...
I have a bit of a problem with that. K-Mart is the worst. They have mostly cartoon stuff for the younger set, then totally teeny bopper hooch look for the older kids. I find that sears and penneys are better than the Marts places and that you can get more conservative items there. Also, if you have a FarmFleet or FleetFarm type place in your area they often have nice clothes that are basic styles. Otherwise Lands End and L.L. Bean wil have some basic traditional style items as well. There is a Roses in our area. It looks like a salvage shop inside but they carry seconds from many major manufacturers and rock bottom prices.
I call them 'baby bar clothes', because they look just like the trashy outfits I've seen women wear to bars to try to pick up men. My dd is 10 now, so we've had this problem for a few years. We can't afford the more expensive stores like penney's, L.L. Bean, etc. I have been able to find some decent clothes at second-hand stores, though. My hubby doesn't like to walk into the girls clothing section of the store with me. One of the first things out of my mouth is always something about not wanting to dress my dd like a hooker (actually, most of the hookers here dress in more conservative clothes than what they make for kids). I saw matching training bra & panty sets with words written across them. I still can't figure out why any girl that young should have anything written on those items. The fact that almost nothing fits my dd properly makes it even harder to find her clothes. She's skinny & tall, and finding pants that fit in the waist & the legs is almost impossible. Fining ones that don't show off her panties when she bends down is even harder.
Ya know I don't really have a problem finding clothes for my kids at all. Grace is 5 and has tons of sundress in all different colors. I got most of them at resale shops. I have been able to find lots of nice clothes for Samantha too. We shop at Justice, Target, WalMart and resale shops mostly. Justice has really cute clothes. The one problem we do have is finding jeans that fit Sam. She is really tall and slim and can't stand when the waist sticks out in back when she sits so she wears a belt. Oh and Old Navy is nice too and they have good prices.
I have nice gift cards to Kohl's and JC Penny. Went to Kohl's and got soooooo frustrated by the fall/winter stuff they had out for sizes 7 and up that I wound up getting all my DS's clothes from there instead. My DD just left the 2-6 size range so I guess I'm still in shock at the older girls fashions.:lol: I seem to have better "luck" at TJ Maxx for her. Also, there are some good second hand shops around here that I'm going to look at after I check out JC Penny. I LOVE Lands' End but can't afford to buy their current season stuff, so I buy after season stuff from them. I'll have to take a trip to Penny's soon and see what I can find. Sigh.
I love Once Upon A Child where I get used clothing in great condition for between $1.50 and $8.00 each. My DSD needed a WHOLE NEW wardrobe this summer as she outgrew all her 6X clothes so I spent a lot of time in the 7/8 section. She got cute jeans, jean shorts, tee shirts (not hoochie kind) and jean skirts all name brands like Gap, Justice, Roxy, Limited Too etc. I spent about $200 for an entire designer wardrobe this summer. Seems like a lot, but for a whole new closetful of clothes its not! Everything looks new or almost new. And none of it cheap or hoochie looking! I have been thinking of setting up a website to sell what I call "refashioned" kids clothing. A lot of my DSD's clothing I embellish myself with patches, rhinestones, beads or I even cut up a baseball jersey and made it into a dress. It would be used clothing but made into something cute. Do you think there would be a market for that?
Oh yes - little girls clothes are just junior's things shrunk down. My oldest is 10, but is out of children's sizes. I have a really hard time finding things that are modest, and appropriate, and that she will wear (she doesn't like her clothes tight). We found that Penney's and Sears have a pretty nice selection - they also have plus sizes which keeps us from having to go to Juniors.
Reminds me of what I saw in the Kmart sale paper this week......advertisement for GIRLS underwear, and one of them shown said " I (heart) RICH BOYS!" I showed dh and he about lost it!!! Geez~what is this society coming to???
I had a melt down a couple of years ago when the older two moved into 7-8 sizes. We don't have much here for shopping and it is all (for lack of a better word) sleezy. I end up going to the boys section. I also love second hand stores, I can find some pretty decent stuff there. Freespirit I love you idea. I think that there are enough practical parents out there to make your idea work. I love once upon a child myself. I only get there about once a year though.
Yep, it's bad. I have one 7/8 and a 10yo in a Junior size 3/5. That really stinks!!! It's really hard to find appropriate clothes for a 10yo in the jr section!!
My daughter gets a lot of hand-me-downs from neices. We have three rules (aside from shorts, which she does wear) 1. NO BELLY 2. NO RISQUE NECKLINES My one neice gets a lot of Justice, so we often get that as hand-me-downs. I find them FAIRLY conservative, but there are a few pieces that even my daughter said "WHAT? for a little girl?". She's been around me too much. We don't allow 2 piece bathing suits, either. She has to be able to lift her arms above her head without being able to see her belly at all. And on skirts, if she bends over and touches her toes and we can see her underwear, she HAS to wear bloomers/shorts underneath. I'm considering learning to sew so that I can make her clothes! And her little sisters too.
I guess I'm not that strict. I really have never once had a problem with my kids wanting to wear anything I didn't think was ok. My dd12 would never even want to wear a short skirt or anything that makes her look trashy. Personally I have never seen anything at Justice or Limited Too (which I cant afford but get as hand me downs from neices) that I wouldn't allow. That is my dd's favorite store. That and Steve and Berry's and they have relaly nice cheap clothes. I do allow 2 pieces. I wear them myself. I just have never made a big deal out of it and they don't either. Of course there are things I don't like such as panties that have sayings on them or shorts that say "juicy" or something like that. But for the most part I dont' have a problem with clothes.
My dd10 loves Limited Too, but they are pricey!! They do have really good clearance sales, so don't rule them out!! Last year I got 2 pair of jeans for 4.99 each. I often find shirts for 3.99 or less.
Our rules are pretty close to yours. I won't allow dd to wear a 2 piece bathing suit. She's 10, I don't think she needs a bikini. I didn't have one until I was 17 & bought it myself. No lowcut shirts. No belly. If it's a tank or tee that shows her belly, I may allow it IF she wears something over it that covers. If I can see her underwear when she bends over in a skirt, we don't buy it (if it was given to her, we give it away). Another rule we have is that I don't want to see her underwear when she bends over or squats in jeans or shorts. That's one we have a lot of problems with because pants that fit her in the legs are always too big in the waist. So, she generally wears pretty long shirts to cover. We also don't allow really short shorts.
I've never had the problem of dd wanting any of the stuff that I won't allow. I just have the problem of sorting through all the trashy clothes to find the few appropriate ones. The stores around here, that we can afford to shop at, tend not to have a lot of clothes that aren't trashy. Plus, there's all the clothes other people buy for her. Most of my family can't get sizes right & seem to think that trashy clothes for little kids are cute. My grandpa has my aunt pick out dresses for all his great-granddaughters every year for Christmas. The year before last, not one of them fit right, and all the girls looked very trashy in them. They were all skin tight & very short (even though half of them should have been the right size).
We have the same rules as kababe and Brandi. Actually the girls have kinda instituted them on their own. It's funny going through hand-me downs with them.
I used to think this kind of problem was limited to girls. And since I don't have girls, wasn't expecting it to be an issue. But SIL just recently bought DS4 a shirt that says "Hide your daughters". I took it back (To WALGREENS!!!!) and found a whole selection of t-shirts for little boys (12 months-6regular) that say other such things like "my mom's hot". I can't remember all of them, but seriously.... ??? "Hide your daughters"???? On a 4 year old????
If my dh saw that shirt in ds's size, he would probably buy, because ds is such a little flirt. He really likes blondes. He actually walked into the side of a building because he was staring at this pretty little blonde girl who was looking out the window at him. Back to the point, I haven't seen anything that bad for boys. The closest I've seen is the shirt ds got for St. Patty's day that says "Irish girls love me." I can't believe they would have shirts for kids that say things like "my mom's hot." That is just so wrong.
My first reaction was to think "wow, that's a great shirt". My boys are total flirts. But then I started thinking about it. Do I really want my sons to think it's OK to be a player? Someone that parents feel the need to hide their daughters from? I don't know. Maybe I'm just a total stick-in-the-mud.
I get it. In a way it's cute, but in another way it's not. The thing is, most parents wouldn't put as much thought into it as you did.
