Those of you who know me, will probably wonder and shake your heads about a fashion statement coming from someone like me. To say the least, I’m not fashion conscious at all. So what would I, who doesn’t understand a bit about modern clothing, have to say about fashion.
Recently I was confronted with the grim reality of having to start making decisions about what my daughter (my eldest daugher, M, that is, as E gets all her hand-me-downs) is to wear. Until now we’ve been awfully blessed with tones of hand-me-downs for her. And while they weren’t always the clothes I would have chosen, they were perfectly functioning and free clothes. But unfortunately she must have caught up in size to the little girl the clothes used to come from. Now it’s up to me to decide what my daughter is to wear.
So I set off to go shopping for my 2.5 year old only to find that the style of clothes available is more “2 going on 16″. I was walking through the aisles of the shops and just didn’t know what to buy with a permanent question pounding in my head: why can’t a two-year-old be dressed like a two-year-old??? Why do we have to dress them up like teenagers. I have to admit that the clothes were rather cute but why turn children into miniature grown-ups?
All I wanted were some basic clothes that would dress my daughter decently. Yet, even plain t-shirts were turned into some statement, that I personally find totally inappropriate, with slogans on them like “charming”, “baby doll” or “ocean angle”. Why put labels on our children and give them teenage attitudes when they’re just little kids who want to play? I seriously think that the way children are dressed changes the way that we treat them or think about them.
When we got given a beautiful toddler-style pair of overalls recently (with a big bottom and lots of room to move in) I realised how little she actually still is and that I often forget about that because the clothes make her look a lot older.
Therefore when shopping, I bought one style shirt in two different colours and then in protest went to the boys section and bought a “Thomas the tank engine”-overall and t-shirt set (M was very excited about that one). And then I decided that I might just have to start making her clothes.
Sewing mashine here I come!
While I do the dishes M occupies the sink next to me (and there I was wondering what huge double sinks were good for) and pours water from one cup into the next into the jug into a pot back into the jug and counts how many of what fit into what. She and the floor, and I too sometimes, get thoroughly wet but she’s having fun and is learning too.