Anonymous wrote:I have never much cared for licensed characters on kids clothes, though each of my kids have one or two t-shirts that they received as gifts or hand me downs that they wear with licensed characters. DS, who is not very "cool" by most standards, will be starting Kindergarten in the Fall. Am I doing him a disservice if I keep dressing him in Mini Boden, Tea, and other clothes that I like and he happily accepts? Or should I buy him character stuff or, worse in my opinion, athletic wear? And is he even worse off if he is wearing stuff he really knows nothing about? The other day he confused a minion for spongebob. Please don't flame me. This isn't about trying to make my kid cool. It is just trying to avoid being the cause of him standing out. FWIW, he is well liked, no real close friends, but everyone likes him, he is sweet, empathetic, smart as a whip, and funny, at least to adults. He just doesn't have a lot of the same interested as other kids his age.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Those anti-athletic wear moms might change their tunes in a few years.

Sure but not b/c we suddenly think it looks good. Tunes change when there are bigger battles to fight.
For now my DS is happy in the clothes we pick out together.

I am a PP and I mentioned that I know the athletic wear days are coming so I am enjoying what we have now.

My best friends oldest is 12. He thinks a polo is dressing up. Hopefully that is still a few more ways.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Talk about control issues! I didn't realize how many moms impose their clothing preferences on their school-aged sons. Scary.

BTW, for those who think dressing nicely at school is a sign of respect, I'd remind you that your son's behavior goes much further in that department than his clothes. When I volunteer in my child's class, I see plenty of disruptive and rude boys in collared shirts and athletic clothes, alike. Focus on the insides, not the outsides.

How is a preference a control issue.? We have all said get get that the athletic phase is coming but for now, while they still have no preference, we are allowing our preferences to prevail.
Further to that, none of us supporting collared shirts said that we think it makes our kids better behaved. Lastly all of us who mentioned still picking out kids clothes for them (with some input) are talking about kids no older than 1st grade.

So no one is imposing a dress code on a 10 year old and no one is saying clothes dictate behavior.
The prevailing argument on iur side has been this...we want our kids to look nice, they don't complain about what they are wearing so we are going to keep it up until they do. And when they do, that is not a hill we are going to die on.

The only thing I won't compromise on in hygiene. When he gets older he can wear what he wants as long as he is clean and his clothes are clean.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've been following this and am wondering what all of you wear when you aren't at work. I wear yoga pants frequently in the evenings and on weekends.

I am one of the PPs. I definitely do not wear work-out/athletic clothes outside of the house/gym, or getting to and from the gym. I change into yoga pants/sweat pants/pjs after work if I have no plans to leave the house, but if I am leaving the house, I always put on jeans or nice shorts and a casual top, or a casual dress. For work, I obviously wear business or business casual attire depending on what I have going on that day. I see school as being my children's "work" - they dress for it differently than they dress for the park on a weekend, sports practice, weddings, etc. Their school clothes are still casual and comfortable (they wear sneakers and jeans for crying out loud), but I like them to dress in a neat/nice manner. I am enjoying this period of time when they let me pick out their clothes! I recognize that they will soon make their own choices.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kids clothes all got trashed in Kindergarten. I would not be sending a K boy in mini Boden or other expensive brands.

Ditto, and I have a girl! I was really shocked when she started coming home from school with dirty/stained/sometimes torn clothes. When she was in pre-K, we never encountered that problem, and she was much younger then.

Also, in my experience, kids in kindergarten don't care about what they wear.

Anonymous wrote:Huh. My kid wears character shirts because he loves them. Batman, Star Wars, Lego Movie. I drew the line at TMNT. I try to pick tasteful ones, if that's not an oxymoron.

But my kid is rough-and-tumble, sometimes going through 2 shirts a day. Last thing I want is for him to be wearing a button-down shirt running around the playground. He has the rest of his life to be wearing "business casual."

Anonymous wrote:I've been following this and am wondering what all of you wear when you aren't at work. I wear yoga pants frequently in the evenings and on weekends.

Anonymous wrote:Talk about control issues! I didn't realize how many moms impose their clothing preferences on their school-aged sons. Scary.

BTW, for those who think dressing nicely at school is a sign of respect, I'd remind you that your son's behavior goes much further in that department than his clothes. When I volunteer in my child's class, I see plenty of disruptive and rude boys in collared shirts and athletic clothes, alike. Focus on the insides, not the outsides.

Anonymous wrote:My kids clothes all got trashed in Kindergarten. I would not be sending a K boy in mini Boden or other expensive brands.

Anonymous wrote:Those anti-athletic wear moms might change their tunes in a few years.

Anonymous wrote:Talk about control issues! I didn't realize how many moms impose their clothing preferences on their school-aged sons. Scary.

BTW, for those who think dressing nicely at school is a sign of respect, I'd remind you that your son's behavior goes much further in that department than his clothes. When I volunteer in my child's class, I see plenty of disruptive and rude boys in collared shirts and athletic clothes, alike. Focus on the insides, not the outsides.