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School clothes shopping | pad patter 8.14.18

rach3975 said:
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My daughter is so much harder. We have to order 2-3 times what she needs and then return the things that don't work out. Girls' clothes seem to vary a lot more than boys'. It's a pain in the neck to order and return so much, but in the end she's happy with what she has. I'm also lucky that none of my kids seems aware of brands--at 14, 12, and 9, they're still content wearing any brand as long as the items we buy are comfortable and fit their personal style.
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I totally agree that girls are HARD to shop for! Every time I go shopping for my girls, it makes me wish I had all boys... hehe
 
Karen said:
... I have a metal sewing thing that grips the elastic and I weave it through where the tie strings go. If you have a tall skinny boy, it might be worth a trip to JoAnns to get this magical device.
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I think I need one of those magical devices for my pants. I hate having a gap in the back of the waistband. Can you post a pic of it so I'll know what to look for?
 
carrie1977 said:
Both of my kids will need shoes. Cole will need everyday wear shoes and Mattie will need tennis shoes for PE. Cole will definitely need socks (where do they disappear to) and undies. The rest won't be such a necessity.
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Sounds like you're a pro at this BTS stuff. Wish all we needed was shoes and socks.
 
AnneofAlamo said:
how I love my boys! We go to ONE store
Burlington Coat Factory (that sells the best boys/mens clothes along with ladies)
We made a full day of shopping. Having a full lunch of carbs and RockSTar! for adults!
lots of laughter and hiding in the racks.
My oldest boy 13, was done in 30 minutes. I had to force him to get some joggers. (looking towards our cold winters)
My youngest says YES, YES to every bit I pull off rack!
My hubby even got 2 suits! He was so happy!
I managed to get a couple of skirts and shirts!
We came out with bags and bags and smiles. Ice cream for the drive home and it was a great day!
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WOWSERS, Anne that sounds like a glorious day! I'd love shopping if it went like that each time.... bags and bags and smiles... I would go for that! I wonder if there's a Burlington near me (maybe in SLC or Ogden), I really need to find some cute work clothes for my new job that won't break the bank.
 
tkradtke said:
We get off fairly easy here. My son never cared what he wore and didn't *need* anything new for school. My daughter has gone to private school for most of her education and wears a uniform. At her high school, every item must have the school logo on it, so it has to be ordered through the school or Lands' End... easy enough. And I really don't order her anything new each year... it's a bit of a status thing, as only freshmen have all new uniforms. Also, the longer you've been at the school, the more team/club shirts you have that you can wear as your uniform so she rarely wears the basic polos that a lot of the freshmen wear.

The only fun thing they get to wear is their socks. So we are always on the lookout for fun socks. She should get new uniform shoes this year, but she's in a boot still and will be for the first three or so weeks of school... so we're holding off so she doesn't wear one out before the other.
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My youngest DD loves socks too, the crazier the better!
 
I love clothes shopping, and the only really girly thing about my daughter is her wardrobe (mostly because I pick it out because she doesn't care all that much -- ha!) so we have lots of fun with it. She has never played with dolls or Barbies, doesn't like her hair being messed with, and is mostly into reading & Minecraft/Roblox so this is all I got! :giggle

She wore a pink dress with multi-colored unicorns and golden sneaker slip-ons for her first day of school. :beat

Boys' clothes are soooooooo boring that I have to get all my fun via my daughter & myself. My 4-year-old picked out a PLAIN green (his favorite color) teeshirt to wear with his plain brown shorts and plain Army green tennis shoes for his first day of school.

School supply shopping is not fun so I go to one store, and one story only, and buy it in one fell swoop. I don't go to different stores, price match, etc. My time is worth more than whatever I would save doing that.
 
oh man, I just did that last week! We even have a "tax free" weekend here in TX where you don't pay any sales tax on purchases...and i absolutely avoid shopping that weekend at all costs (it's SO crowded everywhere!).

This year I have two middle schoolers - daughter in 8th and son in 6th. It was so cute/funny how serious he was about getting "the right" clothes for school! he wanted cool t-shirts and hoodies. My daughter has been shopping off and on all summer, so she had a pile of new stuff ready for school already. Had to buy them each shoes (Vans). between clothes for the two of them and their school supplies we spent about $1000 on back to school stuff.

I absolutely LOATHE shopping though, so I'm like all those dads you mentioned - just buy what they want and get the heck out of there! lol.
 
keepscrappin said:
I think I need one of those magical devices for my pants. I hate having a gap in the back of the waistband. Can you post a pic of it so I'll know what to look for?
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Here is a picture of the thing I use (the pincher bodkin)... I didn't know what it was called so it was hard to find and apparently JoAnns doesn't sell them at least online. It was my Mom's from when I was a kid... Anyway you pinch the elastic and then use the metal to weave the elastic through "channel" where the drawstring is in athletic pants.

trio+needles1.jpg
 
I lied! I searched for "metal bodkin" and nothing showed up, but when I searched for just "bodkin" it did:



and it's CHEAP! Only $2.49!
 
I feel so blessed this year because hubby took our son school shopping. They went to one store and got everything, even his shoes. I started to feel a bit guilty about it, and then I remembered all the shopping I did with our daughter and I was like, nope, your turn. LOL
 
gonewiththewind said:
I feel so blessed this year because hubby took our son school shopping. They went to one store and got everything, even his shoes. I started to feel a bit guilty about it, and then I remembered all the shopping I did with our daughter and I was like, nope, your turn. LOL
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YES, it's good to let the hubby take a turn. And I'm glad you gave yourself credit where credit was due.
I'm gonna let my hubby take a turn when he gets home from his business trip tomorrow. I took the 2 girls again today. Big mistake. I re-learned why they need to go separately... ugh! At this point I don't care what he lets them buy or how much it costs, I just want to be done with it.
 
like @Rachel Jefferies & @LynnG have mentioned it can be a case of "yay for uniforms, boo for uniforms" here - to me, the financial outlay is justified by the fact that you aren't judged on your taste in clothing here on that first day and what to put on each day is not even something you need to expend any energy worrying about - even mufti to some extent is limited with it often being tied to a fundraising cause (like Jeans for Genes day the other week or you need to wear red, yellow or black to support an indigenous cause etc all for a gold coin donation or cross country/athletics carnival days where you have to wear house/team colours). That said when the 'texture' of the clothing is not something your child likes it can be painful - DD very much misses the feel of polo shirts and tracksuit pants from primary school days!
 
gah. I gave up and ordered shirts and shorts online- it was easy at least. Now I just have to get them shoes.
 
bellbird said:
like @Rachel Jefferies & @LynnG have mentioned it can be a case of "yay for uniforms, boo for uniforms" here - to me, the financial outlay is justified by the fact that you aren't judged on your taste in clothing here on that first day and what to put on each day is not even something you need to expend any energy worrying about - even mufti to some extent is limited with it often being tied to a fundraising cause (like Jeans for Genes day the other week or you need to wear red, yellow or black to support an indigenous cause etc all for a gold coin donation or cross country/athletics carnival days where you have to wear house/team colours). That said when the 'texture' of the clothing is not something your child likes it can be painful - DD very much misses the feel of polo shirts and tracksuit pants from primary school days!
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oooh boy, whole can of worms there LOL! My eldest has extreme sensitivity to clothing texture and feel. She managed to cope with uniform when she had to, but it's an ongoing challenge even now. Younger one used to wear anything I gave her and is now starting to develop some style and likes to get dressed in cool stuff to go downtown with friends etc. I know what you mean about the "not being judged". We are glad younger one will get to wear mufti for her last year of school so that she can really develop her own style before uni etc but also glad it's uniform for now!
 
We have school uniforms. We only have the one option for most of the items. One thing I hate about school uniforms is we don't have any choice about what it's made out of, and the other is that it's really expensive.
When my eldest started the secondary school I was passed two huge bags full of hand-me downs that would see all three of my children through the school. Last year they changed the school uniform on us ... I was not impressed.
 
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