Why do people take children's clothing so personally?

[Anonymous]

Not getting the vitriol in the other thread about girls wearing smocked dresses. I have boys. All boy clothes basically look the same.
What are elementary school girls supposed to wear?

[Anonymous]

I don't know I have two girls and have had lots of fun dressing them. Now they are teenagers and dress themselves. Abercrombie, ect. Do not know why people ahte those smocked dresses so much. Because their MIL gave them?

[Anonymous]

Because we view our children as extensions of ourselves. How people perceive our children = (in some people's minds) how people perceive us.

[Anonymous]

My girls love fleece, leggings (with shorts), and soccer shirts. I just go with it. They shouldn't care what they look like yet.

[Anonymous]

I have two girls OP and I do not get it either. The smock dress thread is crazy. To smock or not to smock? Who cares!

[Anonymous]

I don't know what a smocked dress looks like and so won't know if I saw one. But then I have boys...

[Anonymous]

Because people take their kids personally. People, rightly or wrongly, see their children as extensions of themselves. And when it comes to clothing, just as with adults, people ascribe all sorts of generalizations and stereotypes to clothing. If you wear Crew Cuts you're X, Janie and Jack you're Y, smocked dressed (apparently) and you're either an upper middle class kid from the south or a sister wife .

Honestly, I think it's silly. Dress my kid in great clothes I find at consignment stores and don't give a rat's ass what people think about it.

[Anonymous]

wtf is a smocked dress?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Because we view our children as extensions of ourselves. How people perceive our children = (in some people's minds) how people perceive us.

I agree, and clothing is a metaphor for class and status in this context.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't know what a smocked dress looks like and so won't know if I saw one. But then I have boys...

I have boys who wore smocked bubbles and john-johns as babies and toddlers.

[Anonymous]

The kids are the flagship? I read that in harsh economic times the kids clothes are the last affordable (?) status symbol.

[Anonymous]

i was wondering what that thread as about, but not enough to click on it.

[Anonymous]

My kids dress themselves (or at least, somewhat. They're 5 and under). As long as it is weather and situation appropriate I don't say anything (for special occasions I will set out something for them).

Apparently some people find that to be a terrible thing. Don't even get people started on graphic tees or other clothing styles.

Maybe some view it as a status thing (more expensive, higher status?) Maybe they view it as a reflection of themselves? Who knows.

[Anonymous]

Agree. It's weird.

[Anonymous]

I don't know, but boy did my mother freak the f*ck out when she discovered that I don't dress the triplets in matching clothes every single day.

You know what, Mother? Sometimes only one wrecks her outfit necessitating a change, and I refuse to change the other two in order to keep the continuity!