Niether of my kids (ages 4 and 2) cares about brands yet, but they are both very clothing concious, especially my son. From the time he was about a year old he has been highly opinionated about his clothing; he HATED character clothes with faces on them and loved pajamas with feet. Now that he is almost five he will flatly tell me “I hate that shirt”. My daughter is concious of clothes in the sense of “everything has to be pink and purple and frilly with lots of bows and preferably a tiara”.
I could have written the exact same thing. Literally word-for-word just like my 3-year-old girl.
Some of my earliest memories are of being embarrassed that my clothes all had stupid pictures or flowers on them.
With my girls, it’s been since they’ve been old enough to dress themselves, I’d say around 2 years, give or take a few months. They are very specific about what they will and will not wear. They have older cousins that pass bags of clothes down to them every year, but my kids will go through the bags item by item and usually only end up agreeing to wear about 30% of the stuff. Every year that number goes down.
For instance, one wears skirts and dresses exclusively, with tights in the winter. The other only wears cotton. No cotton blends or synthetics. It makes buying things for them challenging, to say the least.
Some of us never get there!
I work at a daycare. Some of the little girls in the toddler room (ages 2 to 3) are very interested in their clothes. Some of the five-year-old girls who will be starting school next year couldn’t care less as long as their clothes are comfortable. So it depends on the kid.
And some boys are interested in clothes, too, even though it’s more subtle. One boy I’m thinking of refused to wear a brown fleece sweater he’d been given as a gift because “I hate brown.” Later he told me “I look like a nerd in brown.” Well, I don’t know about “nerd”, but he was right that the brown wasn’t flattering for him. Red and blue are more his colors. His mom bought him a blue fleece sweater and everyone was happy again…
I’ve always been half girly and half tomboy. I love clothes. But never ever ever anything pink or frilly. I’m convinced that it stems from the fact that I was bald til I was 2, so my mom was always dressing me within an inch of my life in ruffled pink everything so people would know that I was a girl.
You do not have children.
At the age of 14 months, my little buggy saw the black patent leather shoes her mom was packing in the suitcase to go to Uncle Gary’s wedding when she, non-verbally but not sub-vocally, demanded that they be put on her feet (over her footie pjs, as it happened), whereupon she ran over to me in the other room and stuck her foot out so I could see.
Some months later we were walking though Target when she spied a sweatshirt, grabbed onto it, and started bouncing up and down in joy. Man that kid is cute.
–Cliffy
This actually makes a lot of sense, I never really thought about it, but that is probably why she said it like she did.
Remember that there are other possible reasons for her to not want to wear certain things, besides a fashion sense. Maybe she doesn’t ever like to wear things of that fabric, or it was a certain type of closure that she hasn’t mastered, or she hates things that go around her neck.
I distinctly remember having heated discussions, and by heated discussions I mean full-on tantrums, when my mother tried to force me to wear turtlenecks or anything that tied around the neck. I have never liked that feeling, possibly due to being hanged in a previous life? It’s a thought. But to an observer, maybe I just hated those things out of fashion- they’d have no way of knowing. But my mother knew, so I easily could have asked her how she’d think I’d wear that.
When I was about 10 and made the transition to middle school, 6th grade, I most clearly remember looking one day at myself in the mirror. My hair was in pigtails! I was wearing a turquoise blue shirtwaist dress that buttoned up the front! White socks and I think Mary Janes! Eeeegads! I thought, this ain’t gonna fly, and I became a fashionista overnight. (Of course this was long ago, before designer clothes and trendy clothes and big white sneakers became popular and I was a tomboy who had to be rassled into the bathtub. When the Mod look came around a few years later, I was ready!)
My daughter felt exactly the same way about certain clothing, but not because of fashion. She refused to wear anything that wasn’t overalls, because, she said, "I’m not shy in ‘pocket pants.’ "
Psst. I think you missed the point. It’s the way the kid said it that was proposed to be aped, because it implied an extra level of awareness that children of her age often do not have. Not only do I not like it, but the majority of people I hang around with wouldn’t like it either. I would feel bad wearing it in front of them.
At least, that’s what a 14yo girl means by it. A couple post above mine seem to indicate it could mean something else.
I remember some of the clothes that I had when I was two and three and still resent that they were given away. Come to think of it, I still have one item from when I was two – a red Mexican jacket. I’ve thought about having it duplicated. Loved that particular item. I’ve always loved red. Also loved gingham checks and plaids. Western boots. Silk. Tweed. Chanel-type suits. Some things just don’t seem to fit in very well.
At two or three I cut one hand-smocked gingham dress up the front. I wanted to remake it so that it would button up the front. I had the dress on at the time and was on the streets of my hometown. I had definite tastes of my own. But I was not allowed to choose a dress for myself until I was seventeen.
Yeah, I agree that IME the specific formulation is copied but the feeling is completely heartfelt. And that’s how kids learn to come up with their own formulations, by copying those of others.
“How can you think I’d wear something like that” is something I could tell to my mother or sister in law, but it wouldn’t be linked to fashion consciousness, of which I have none and they have tons: it would mean “Jesus woman, you still don’t know me? I do not wear stuff like that!” (even if it happens to be totally fashionable. Just no.)
My son was really young - two or younger. He dressed himself very early and had distinct preferences (still does at eleven). Good color sense and a good sense of style as well.
My daughter is ten and still doesn’t have it. There are things that are her favorite things to wear, but they are usually color driven (often pink) or comfort driven (very soft)
As for the phrasing, I believe it was said and meant. She obviously picked up the phrase somewhere, because kids pick up phrases just like adults do - but she knew what it meant and used it appropriately (well, appropriately from a linguistics standpoint - I don’t think talking like that to your mother is every appropriate). My kids have come out with some phrases over the years - in correct context - that have made me roll my eyes.
Yeah, I would have gotten no pretty nice new clothes if I’d said that to my mom.
One of my daughters (age 7) will still insist that enormous sweatpants, a babydoll dress and an over sized sweatshirt is fine for any occasion. My younger daughter (5) started to pull the diva act pretty hard-core last year. She is still very adamant about chosing her own clothes and looking “just so” even when we’re hanging out around the house. My future step-son is four and has started the obsession. I’m still working on teaching him the fine art of layers but he’s very interested in his clothing. What surprises me still is my fiance’s need for the kids’ pajamas to match. If they come in a set but are not worn in a set it drives him crazy.
Yeah, for my daughter (who would have said it at 5, though she is now 7), all it would mean is “That’s a dress. I don’t do dresses. Ever.” In fact, the last time she wore a dress was when she was 5, because we had a fancy event to go to and it didn’t occur to me to get her dressy boy clothes. It wasn’t a popular decision, and she currently owns no dresses, not do I suspect she will any time in the near future.
I find this funny, because in my day(graduated from high school in 1975) we weren’t ALLOWED to wear pants to school, even in the winter, until the temperature got down to some specific point like 15’.
My coworker’s daughter started voicing her preferences at two, refusing to wear pants shortly after that and won’t even wear pajamas. She’s now four and a half and still voices her opinions with a hand on the hip and a “No, Mommy, I don’t think so”. Her parents are the most un-fashion-conscious people I know.