So… it occurs to me I should buy some fancy little outfit for the little gentleman to wear, It’s tradition among us christians, after all: new duds for Easter. So I start shopping around.
Issue one: Is there some sort of population imbalance no one told me about? Are we like alligators who start having babies all the same sex when the climate alters? Because judging by the racks in the toddler department, there are 9 girls for every boy. Racks upon racks upon racks of frilly little dresses with ribbons and smocking and daisy appliques and dotted swiss overlays and matching hats and lacy socks and shoes and purses. And one paltry rack for boys.
Issue Two: Have I missed out on some important trend where small children are joining the business community before entering kindergarten? I ask because some of these outfits for toddlers feature TIES. Regular windsor-knot ties and bowties. An alternate theme is GOLFING. Right. My son is a toddler. He is not yet three. He does NOT wear ties. He does NOT play golf. He plays in a sandbox, get it?
Issue Three: Are we supposed to move to Georgia to attend church? We’re in Michigan and Easter falls in March this year. So why do the few outfits which manage to eschew the businessman-golfer theme involve sweatervests over short-sleeved polo shirts with knee pants? For all my parenting shortfalls, I’d prefer to not give my son hypothermia for the holiday.
Do you jews have to buy fancy outfits for passover? Should we convert? I foresee problems like this for the next ten years, frankly. If I can get out of this shopping dilemma with a quick change in religion, I’m game.;j
You and me both! At least we are in SoCal, where it will probably be 70 degrees on Easter, but I totally agree that this thing is whack.
I swore that my son would never dress in a “little man” suit with a tie. It grosses me out. So apparently I am left with the sweater-vest option as my only choice. Or so the store thinks!
This Easter, my kid will be heading off to church in a muted Hawaiian print shirt (think Reyn Spooner), khakis and some sort of cute casual shoe. Just like every other guy in this family except my dad, who sings in the choir so he will wear at least a tie.
Of course, we also have a sunrise Easter service out on the beach, where I will be making quite a statement in my sweats, gloves, earband and Ugg boots! My son’s footy sleeper may or may not be in an Easter color!
Having both a boy (3 1/2) and a girl (2 1/2), I can honestly say I have noticed the difference.
With our daughter, there are a zillion choices for clothing. Our poor baby boy, however, gets stuck with the proverbial three piece suit or sweater vest mentioned earlier. Our son loves to dress up, though. Our little girl would rather wear sweats.
I have never respected La Principessa so much as I did on the day when she was about 7 years old and she finally told me, politely but firmly, “Mommy, I don’t LIKE those frilly dresses.” She wants to wear black sheath dresses, or tailored navy blue suits. Needless to say, they don’t make many of those in size 6.
She is now almost 11, and whenever we’re at Wal-Mart and we go past the Frilly Dress Explosion, and I start to say wistfully, “Wouldn’t you like…? Just one…? You have so few dresses…” she only says firmly, “I don’t wear pink.”
I have a twelve-year-old who finally put her foot down about wearing dresses after last Easter. She now wears dress pants and anything but a T-shirt when the occasion requires dressing up. My nine-year-old, who always loved shopping and dressing up in frilly things, seems to be heading the same way, and I’m feeling oddly wistful about that. I didn’t think I liked the frilly-dress thing.
As for Easter (or Christmas) dresses, it is a pain trying to find any that are appropriate. I can live with the corny “little man” outfits on boys, but some of the corresponding dresses for girls leave me agape. Where are children wearing these things, preschool cocktail parties? Auditions for the remake of “Taxi Driver”?? I can’t imagine buying some of these things for my kids - in a few years, I’ll be forbidding them to wear dresses like that!
You could just eschew religion altogether and be done with the whole silly business. No more Sunrise Service for Easter. No more Midnight Mass for Christmas. No more getting up unnecessarily early on Sunday.
Y’know, this is probably a completely stupid, ignorant thing that only a non-parent could ask - but do they make anything like a nice vest/waistcoat for boys? It strikes me as a lot less ludicrious-looking than an Adowabow Widdow Man’s Suit (of which I was a victim ca. age 5) but can feel kind of dress-up, too.
My son is only 4 months old (well, he will be tomorrow) and already I’m seeing the inequities. I went to Children’s Place to pick up some things for a friend’s newborn girl. Tons of cute clothes. I figured I’d pick up something for my son for the summer. I found one okay outfit and my husband doesn’t even like it. It was the only outfit that didn’t have sports crap all over it. Oh, and it was one of the few outfits that wasn’t linen. Linen! Who the heck makes linen clothes for 4 month old boys? I don’t even wear linen–it wrinkles when you breathe on it.
This is what I have to look forward to for the next 18 years?
And I shall enter my first shiney new post on the newly resurected SDMB
with all it’s new and not so new tricks, into this thread.
ahem.
Yes, most of the ‘little boy’ clothes were absolutely less than astonishing.
with one exception.
Imagine my son (and stop drooling, I want you to think about what he looked like when he was a toddler), blonde, barrel chested, big blue eyes, wearing:
a **spandex, faux leopard skin bathing suit **
(why do I get the impression that Cranky is busy thinking of currently nearly 18 year old Ben, 6 foot one, blond, blue eyed, barrel chested he-man, in a spandex, faux leopard skin bathing suit? )
This kind of thing makes me oh-so-happy I’m only 19 and don’t have children yet. If I had a son I would have the grand choice of dressing him in sports-themed or baby-prep (augh! GAP! Muted earthtones!) clothing. Doesn’t anyone make durable kid’s clothes that have bright colors and look halfways decent???
Baby girls definitely have a monopoly on cute stuff. I about blew a gasket while shopping for my cousin’s new baby a few weeks ago and saw lavender dresses at Penney’s. Lavender! On babies! Too… cute… must… sit… down…
Ceejay, it’s funny you mention that because I thought of making “linen” my Issue #4. My MIL bought Kirk a little vest/polo/pants set last Easter that has linen pants. I get my iron out about once a year, if that–I can guarantee you I’m not ironing toddler duds.
It was one of the pieces of clothing I let him wear without laundering first.
Having a child of either sex, I will state that dressing a girl is far harder, because either she looks like a mini-moonie bride, future white trash prom attendee or Jon-Benet Ramsey.
The really nice not frilly spazzie dresses (Gap, et al)are, naturally, $40-75 bucks (if you are lucky) and I cannot bear this price at all since said child will a) wear it once and b) ruin it before we make the drive to church. I saw one dress (Christmas Tartan plaid with outstanding smocking for a mere $200. Yeah, for an 18 month old girls dress. Riiiiiiiiiight.)
But the entire weather issue thing is right on.
I am very fortunate to have a shop-o-holic status conscious vain sister in law who’s daughter is 8 months older (and 3 sizes bigger) than my own precious sweet pea petite daughter. Every few months we receive a buttload of garbage bags with more clothes than a child could possibly wear. Often times the *tags are still on the items *. My daughter has worn maybe two dresses and the rest of time she wears sweats/leggins and her frog boots.
Oh, and I would like to state (for no reason in particular) that Shirley Ujest Jr likes to pull down her tights far more than pants or leggins. The little hoyden.
Boys, are much easier. Eschew the little old man and golfer look and just do what Shirley does: Khaki pants, white shirt and some kind of silly little boys clip on tie. This year’s theme tie is
" Thomas the Tank Engine" Twelve dollars for tie and shirt. He will be wearing either tennis shoes or (his favorite) pull on rain boots.
tricks, into this thread.