"Whoever did this to me is getting cut."
Remember how I got more clothes than God at my baby showers? And how her closet and drawers are stuffed with clothes? I had each drawer sorted by size and we're into her six months stuff now *sniff* so I went ahead and put away the spring/summer/too small stuff and I came across some.....interesting baby clothes.
Now I consider myself a pretty laid back mom. I think I have a pretty good handle on my thoughts and philosophies regarding how I want to raise my child and I definitely want her to have the confidence to be her own person. But as long as *I'm* dressing her, there will be some rules.
No tutus or labels. I may piss off the giant-flower-tutu contingent of moms out there because I'm depriving my daughter but rest assured, I will fill her closet with tutus if she should ever ask for them. Until then, these have to go.
I will pass on outfits that have credit cards on them shouting
'high maintenance.' It's not that kind of party.
Plus, the tutu doesn't even go all the way around.
Even though this one has a full tutu, 'candy girl'
sounds just sexual enough to make me uncomfortable.
This one is sorta cute, but it loses by default because it'll
be too cold by the time Sofia can fit into it. *Darn.*
I know it's just a onesie, but I'd rather not label her this early.
Besides, it's unfair to her - what if she turns out to be a kind, quiet yoga kid?
Nope, not wearing this one either.
While I don't mind Paul Frank per se, this one
creeps me out nonetheless.
No unfortunate designs. When designing clothes, first there's the sketch. Someone has to approve the sketch, saying 'that would look cute in real life! Let's make one and see!' Then they make the sample, saying 'oh that does look cute! Let's make a bunch and see if stores will sell them!' Then the stores look at the samples and say 'oh, these are cute! Let's buy a bunch and sell them to our customers!' Then people buy them saying 'oh this will look darling on my baby!'
So after all those steps, can someone please tell me how I came to be in possession of a pair of anus pants?!
I don't agree with designs on the butt anyway, for anyone.
I never understood that whole 'Juicy' phase, where people everywhere
invited total strangers to think about their juicy butts.
But HOW did the baby clothes designers let this one slide!?
No designer labels. No one needs to know who made your outfit or where you got it. Besides being a little pretentious, it's so mundane. I don't need my handbag to scream COACH, GUCCI, LOUIS V. I go for good materials and good workmanship over a loud label. The same goes for my clothes. I could never get behind that trend in jeans where they put all kinds of crap on the pockets, like glitters and crystals and white stitching all over the place.
Foul. Just foul.
Give me a pair of dark, well made, crystal-free jeans any day. You can keep your Ed Hardy nonsense - I'm not 12. But this isn't about me, it's about my baby.
In case the stitching and designs have blinded you, this is a
Dereon onesie - you know, Beyonce's label?
I don't even know where this came from.
Thanks but no thanks.
My baby will look like a baby. I don't have any pictures of inappropriate clothes because thank God, Sofia doesn't have any. But she will not wear anything that makes her look like she's older than she is. There will be no fast babies in this house.
Now, feetie pajamas? I loooooove feetie pajamas and
I'm so happy it's finally getting cool enough to wear them!
Sofia has eight pair of feetie pajamas, which is kind of silly.
I'm so grateful that I've had the privilege of going more than six months without needing to buy Sofia clothes. Anything I've purchased her was because I wanted to (like those feetie pajamas.) But now that I get to start buying things for her I'm scoping out the stores I like.
I have several multi piece sets from Vitamins Baby and I love them. They are so sweet and delicate and I love dressing the baby in them, but I don't know where they came from. Every time we go out, I look for them but I haven't had much luck. I'm also in love with Tea Collection. Their baby girl clothes are so flippin cute I could die! But the prices make me choke! Why the eff are cute kid's clothes so expensive!? It's not like they're going to wear them for years and years! Same thing with Mini Boden. I'm going to start stalking the consignment stores.
As for the other clothes, I don't know what to do with them. Do I put them on Ebay -Weird baby clothes for sale? Do I give them to Goodwill? I hate the idea of another little girl wearing something that says 'Drama Queen' on it. I don't want to perpetuate this idea that it's okay for girls to be crazy, yet throwing them away seems excessive and wasteful.
Where exactly is the Purgatory for weird baby clothes?
Amen, mama! I have to say I'm slightly jealous of mamas with girls because your clothing options are so much cuter than ours (baseballs and ducks).
ReplyDeleteSomeday Sofia might LOVE tutus, but let her decide that on her own :)
I say goodwill - but if you find the drama queen thing offensive cut it up and use it for dust rags?
ideas for the hotmess clothes: cut any cute parts and use for later sewing projects, use as a rag to wipe behind baby (cut up and make into little rags) and YES!! I refuse to dress my future baby girl in clothing that has false advertisement or that makes her look like I want her to be a future street walker!! Way to go!!
ReplyDeleteOMG! I completely agree on all of this. Except that one outfit with the cute skirt and the tank top. She could wear the skirt with tights and a different shirt. That skirt is cute. Just girly enough without being cheesy. :)
ReplyDeleteHonest to God, nothing frustrates me more (or bothers me) than sayings on shirts like "Drama queen" or "high maintenance" or "I'm a diva", or WHATEVER. I don't feel like talking that kind of garbage into my child from the get-go. However, I do like skirts, and ruffly ones (not necessarily tutu's), but not all the time. I like to dress Emeline like me (ha), so, laid back and casual, yet put together. And I LOOOOVE baby cothes (like footie pjs) and cozy one piece stuff for when they're so little and sweet :)
ReplyDeleteHilarious. I agreed on all of them, and laughed out loud on some. Although we did amass a small collection of tasteful tutus. Or maybe they are just skirts that happen to be made of that material, whatever its called. I'd take them to Once Upon a Child, and trade them in for some clothes you love. Wait, maybe you don't have that store down there. That is where I have found my Janie & Jack and Polo stuff that I could never buy on my own! I'm right with you on Mini Boden too....to die for. As soon as it turned fall on the calendar, we got our cuddly pajamas too...the fleece ones are the best and remind me of bringing her home 6 months ago!
ReplyDeleteOooh! We do have Once Upon a Child! I'm totally going to do that!
ReplyDeleteAnd I can't wait to break out her fleece feetie pajamas - it's still a pinch warm for the fleece. We're doing the cotton ones right now.
We banned all "Princess", "Diva", and leopard print clothing options. If it's been featured on The Jersey Shore, the kid is not wearing it. However, I do kind of love the giant hair accessories...mostly because I think they're hilarious. I know, I'm a horrible mother. She'll get me back someday.
ReplyDeleteYay for not ascribing to gender roles! I totally agree- she will hear all that garbage about what women are supposed to be for the majority of her life outside the home- doesn't mean she has to have at home as well.
ReplyDeletetear them up and use them as cleaning cloths...or better yet spit up rags hah...I'm glad I have a boy...he does have these really cut frog and monkey outfits where the animal is on the butt part but it gives us a reason to call him "monkey butt" or "froggy butt"...it's cute..
ReplyDeleteI feel the same way about my own clothes too
I was going to suggest cutting them up into cloth TP! Hahahaha, what a great purgatory--forever sentenced to wipe butts.
ReplyDeleteBut I think Once Upon a Child is even better, since you can get something nice out of it.
I cried I laughed so hard at the anus pants. Who does that!?! We're in complete agreement on the no labels and dressing age appropriate. I have a friend who spends $40-$100 PER ITEM on her little boy just because there's a stupid horse embroidered on it. What a waste when he outgrow EVERYTHING within 6 months. BS. That's why we have a $5 per item cap. We shop the sales and clearances like mad men. If we break the $5 limit, we both have to love the item (which means texting pics and arguing while one of us in Gymboree). :)
ReplyDeleteI LOVE the Tea Collection...but hot damn....expensive much?
As for used clothes, we either give them to friends or consign them. We earn a little cash for consigning them and reinvest it in Bean's wardrobe. We've made decent money doing that, especially since we're frugal when buying. In fact, I got a Baby GAP coat for Bean last year for $8. He wore it all winter and we just sold it to a consignment store for $18. So, they basically paid us to use the coat for a season. Score!
Jer ordered a pair of those nasty, super embroidered jeans a couple of months ago. When they came, he was so excited to try them on and show me. They went back the next day because I told him I'd never be seen in public with someone emulating a Jersey Shore cast member. Horrid. :)
I'd suggest scoping out the craft store/dept for a cute applique to cover and "fix" the drama queen onesie so she could wear it. Also, I love shopping the clearance racks for the size my kids will need when that season comes again (for example, I bought Christmas dresses from Macy's in January in the next size up and spent only $20 for both my girls!). Oh, and I love Gymboree's clothes, but their prices are so high that I rarely even look at the full-price racks when I'm there! ;-)
ReplyDeleteOg my goodness you had me laughing so hard. I can honestly say I never thought of baby clothes in that way, but then again I don't have any children. Some of the items you illustrated were indeed terrible, anus pants.
ReplyDeleteMy niece wore feetie PJ's for most of the little bit moments of her life and I loved seeing her in them.
Great post! While I don't like butt slogans for babies, I really despise them on older girls. I teach fourth grade and I cringe at the idea of any one looking at my students butts and thinking "fresh", "sweet" or "baby." These are the knock off Juicy designs. Gross! But, until mothers refuse to buy them they will be made.
ReplyDeleteI have always found Vitamins Baby clothes at Ross - and reasonably priced... try that if there's one in your area. Really liked this post... I have no qualms about throwing away kids clothes that I hate, or turning them into dust rags!
ReplyDeleteThose onesies could be cut into squares and used as cloth wipes!
ReplyDeleteWhat's the fun of having kids if you can't get some blackmail material? :-)
ReplyDeleteDon't the red dots around the anus part make it look infected?! I stared at those pants for the longest time wondering who in the HAYULL thought those were a good idea!
ReplyDeleteAnd I'm mad at your overspending friend - $100 per item?! That's just crazy! Although I bow to your bargain-shopping skillz - my limit is $10 but I wasn't that serious about it because we didn't have to buy too many things. Now that Sofia is growing out of a lot of her clothes I'm going to be more vigilant about shopping sales and consignment stores. I have a Rocawear outfit that's brand new that I'm going to see if I can't trade for something better. If I weren't so evolved, I might be offended that someone bought her a Rocawear outfit...
I can just see you shutting Jer down when he walked in, all proud of his jeans... :-)
You're so right - as consumers we have to tell the sellers what we want and as long as some mother thinks it's cute, they'll keep making them. *sigh*
ReplyDeleteWe were just at Nordstrom Rack yesterday and I saw some Vitamins Baby sets but I didn't get them because they were the feetie pajamas. I wanted to get them so bad but I refrained. :-)
ReplyDeleteThis comment made me love you.
ReplyDeleteI love love love this post! I have boys, not girls but I can totally relate. I ended up consigning SO.MANY.THINGS when my boys were babies that people had given us because there was no way I was going to let my child be seen in it. I take huge issue with all of the “licensed” apparel, attitude tees and camo. I feel bad(ish) about this but, I always picture the children in that kind of clothing to be the ones running around with giant Kool-Aid stained faces, sticky lollipop residue (with some dirt and grass on top of it) and a snotty nose running down to their lip (like you must fit that description to wear those clothes). Because of that I could never put my boys in those clothes when they were smaller. Now that they are older and can pick out their own things and, of course, have a love affair with all things Pokémon, Lego and Superhero I have learned to relax a bit, just a bit though. I still will not let them wear those clothes unless they are playing outside or sleeping. They have both become quite the little fashion kings in the past few months, so I’m hoping the days of the horrible Pokémon tees for pajamas are behind us. I say, if you want to wear a fedora and go for a Sinatra look, please feel free just stay away from the face staining clothes. Oh, and my boys are 7 and 9 and still LOVE footie pajamas.
ReplyDeleteJane, I have a fourth grade daughter and we both totally agree with you. I took her shopping for winter clothes this weekend and she was so frustrated that so many things were inappropriate.
ReplyDeleteAnd Desiree, I'd put that stuff on eBay. Sell it to someone who's going to buy that stuff anyway and get your sweet girl some more cute outfits.
Even though I felt guilty about it, I took them to Once Upon a Child and got three new outfits! I do feel bad that some other little girl might wear a drama queen onesie but I'm telling myself that it'll get donated because the store donates all items they don't sell.
ReplyDelete:D Thanks so much!
ReplyDeleteJudge me if you must bit I like the outfit that says "peace, love and rock and roll" or whatever it says lol. I'm also not into tutu's or name brands and things like that and I can't imagine spends lots of money on an outfit for a baby that she's just gonna grow out of anyway ya know. And that 1st pic of that baby. . . Lord! I HATE when people dress their babies that way. I don't know why it annoys me so much but it just does. Another blogger. . . Nevermind. End rant! Lol!
ReplyDeleteYou know, I don't like when clothes make jasmine LOOK older. Not that they are grown but she looks like a big girl and it just makes me sad :( *sappy mom moment*
Oh a footie pjs! I loveeee them! Jasmine still wears them. She got some for her bday last year that she can just now fit into. Also I'm a cheapy when it comes to shopping for my girl. My max is always 10bucks. Only thing that can go over that amount is shoes and lucky for me her feet sont seem to grow fast at all. She's barely into her size 5toddler shoes now lol
ReplyDeleteI agree with all of this EXCEPT, my auntie made Zo a tutu that I will allow for pictures ONLY.. she won't be rocking that thing outside the house!!!!
ReplyDeleteAnd 8 pairs of feetie PJs is perfect- she'll go through those in a week right? Zoe has a lot- I haven't counted them up but I love them! It's like a fashionable snuggie. She can kick and play and be warm!
iHATE labels and iHATE shirts with labels on them... especially "Princess" Or "DIVA"
I'm late. I know. Trying to get caught up but I'm with you on the crazy clothing for babies. The only tutu my child has worn was bought by her father and she wore it once, complained (thank the holy heavens!) and never wore it again. It's sitting in the closet collecting dust. And I will never put my child in a Juicy or Baby Phat or any other brand that just screams hootchie on it. I received an outfit from a cousin from Juicy and, although I thanked her in public for it, I sold it at the nearest consignment shop the following month. (don't tell her I did that!) And my child will never wear someone's name on her butt not as long as she's in my house anyway especially not as a baby.
ReplyDeleteI also used to avoid too much pink like it was the plague. I refused to buy my daughter a lot of pink or frilly items. She has a FEW pink items from the baby shower (i'd requested people stay clear of pink for gifts unless it was just unavoidable) but normally I don't pick them out...strangely though, since she's started shopping with me (She's 3) she picks out the pink. Grrrr! LOL
We've made it this far without the "drama queen" or "diva" labels so far and we'll see how long that sticks. ;)
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