Last Wednesday evening, around tea time, my daughter grew about three inches.
Growth spurts are bad news in our house because they inevitably mean the sudden relegation of an entire wardrobe to the charity bag. Then, only when there is one outfit, peering sad and lonely from a rail of empty hangers, do we admit the terrible truth. She needs more clothes.
Any colour, as long as it's pink...
If I was made of money, I’d only ever shop at Boden, from the comfort of my own sofa, accompanied by music I love and a glass of good champagne, but I should probably pay the bills this month, so we are forced to supplement the Boden buying with that dreaded place – the High Street.
What I hadn’t accounted for was how much more of an ordeal shopping would become now my daughter is about to hit the grand old age of ten. The problem is, she has no idea what JLS stands for, prefers Oliver! to High School Musical and has the audacity to listen to Indigo Girls and Seth Lakeman rather than Hannah Montana or Justin Bieber.
Until we hit the shops, I had no idea how many shades of pink existed in the world. From angelic off-white pink (clearly for girls who never eat ketchup) to the garish colour borrowed from the latest chick-lit best seller.
‘It’s not that I hate pink,’ my daughter informs me in the very first shop we descend upon. ‘It’s just that pink is for pyjamas.’
What about a sensible pair of blue jeans, then? A safe bet, you would think. Yet why do manufacturers impose the proportions of a woman’s size eight on young girls? Hipsters. At this age they do not have the hips to hold them up; ‘Skinny’ jeans. Now, there’s a body shape to desire! Blood circulation to the ankles is just so overrated, darling.
Probably the best of this bilious bunch are certain high street stores who cannot help but to ensure their shop logo glares back at us from the front of every item of clothing (we all know the culprits) If my daughter must be employed as a walking billboard, then is it too much to ask that we are at least offered a free outfit and a contribution to the college fund?
In the final shop, a girl, probably about seven, clonks past trying on a pair of heels and I grow all misty eyed over an off the shoulder number, with the word BABE spelled out in diamanté studs. Oh, the top has a point. It was surely only last week my bundle of joy stared up from my arms, cushioned by the promise of a whole drawer’s worth of teddy bear rompers to chose from … Yet, something tells me this isn’t what the top means, not what it means at all.
A laugh from beside me. ‘Mum, I’ve found something!’
She yanks a top from the rail and holds it up; ‘I HEART SHOPPING!’ the top screams.
You see, if not following the crowd has taught her anything, it has certainly taught her irony.
Tonight, when she is asleep, I’ll sneak up to her room to steal her sole trusty outfit from the floor; a good old Amy Ray youth t-shirt and a pair of currently unavailable M&S magic jeans that grow with her. I’ll pop them in the washing machine and if I hang them on the radiator they will dry by the time she gets in from school tomorrow.
And by the way, I’ve decided I prefer laundry to shopping any day.
Amanda Dixie works in a library and is currently studying for an MA in Creative Writing. She lives in Glastonbury and dreams of one day owning a pair of goats. She tweets at @MrsPelephant.
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Nothing to do with pinkness, just an opportunity to say how much I hate the use of ‘High Street’ instead of main street, which is what we had in the towns of Ireland till the invasion of M&S, Debenhams, and all those other top brands from the YouKay. Cranky, I know, but somebody has to be.
David, perhaps in your understandable hatred of the phrase “high street” you didn’t notice the author bio at the end if this post, which reveals that the author lives in Glastonbury. Which is in Somerset. In the UK.
You’re right, Anna; blinded by crankiness, I didn’t notice Amanda’s address. And I suppose that people living in the YouKay have to be allowed call their high streets the High Street. But should we allow them to use the term on our Irish blogs . . . ? Was it for this that we fought all them Vikings?
Out of interest, would you use “main street” metonymically to mean a certain type of shop (the way high street is used here), or just to refer to the most important street of a town?
My policy is not to use the phrase ‘high street’ at all, in relation to shops or anything else, on the basis that there’s no such thing in Ireland so it’s meaningless. It’s bad enough that the expansion of YouKay brands into Ireland has taken all the thrilling exoticism out of Oxford Street without our main streets, age-hallowed sites of conversation, vandalism and late night wears, being erased from the language.
This is interesting. I didn’t realise you used different terms in Ireland. To confuse matters, I tend to use High Street to mean a certain type of shop that you see in every town. Here in Glastonbury we have a High Street (Main Street) and if you look on the map it is officially called the High Street BUT it does not have any of the usual High Street shops on it so we tend to call it The Road. As in ‘I’m going up the Road, do you want anything?’
Confused?
Hi Amanda
Like so many others who will read this post, I feel your pain.
I have two daughters (aged 9 & nearly 7 respectively) and shopping for them is always an exercise in compromise. My youngest’s favourite colour is, and always has been, blue. Apart from jeans, it is very difficult to find blue clothes for a little girl.
My eldest likes pink – but just flashes of it now and again. She doesn’t want an entire wardrobe of it and she never has.
Due to their colouring, black looks very well on my children, but I dread their teenage years when black clothes will be taken as a statement of affiliation with a certain type of music.
Then, like you say, there is the minefield of inappropriate shapes, cuts and words splashed across clothing. I also feel that if I have paid for something, then it’s mine and I don’t want someone else’s name splashed across it. In my view, labels are for washing instructions, nothing else.
Shopping for underwear is a task that frequently has me gritting my teeth. I don’t think 3-year olds need ‘cute’ splashed across their crotches and I refuse to buy knickers for my 9 year old that have ‘call me’ written on them.
Plain pants or pants with innocuous things like flowers and butterflies on them are fine by me. But I draw the line at pants for a 6 year old that have ‘cheeky’ written on them.
I would like my children to have access to clothes that are feminine but not slutty. Is that too much to ask?
HK
(PS I found ‘Packaging Girlhood’ by Sharon Lamb and Lyn M. Brown a jolly good read on the subject of raising girls in this society where marketers are forcing pink on them).
I have similar problems and I have boys. At almost 6, my eldest doesn’t want to be branded with Bob or Thomas anymore. He thinks diggers and racing cars on your clothes are babyish. He has no hips or nappy to hold up jeans. Those adjustable elastic things cut into him. Taking cues from his Dad, he will only wear a shirt if we’re going to a restaurant or family function. He hates shopping but I daren’t buy him anything without consultation. Age 5-6 trousers in one shop are at least 4 inches longer than in another. So what are we left with? Tracksuit bottoms and plain long sleeved teeshirts with one of the three overwashed, faded shortsleeved superhero tees he will wear over them. One day we will find a pair of trousers that are properly cut for hipless boys and a day will go by when I’m not constantly looking at his builder’s behind. The next day he will grow out of them. I’ll never ever prefer laundry though.
My daughter came home with her face pierced the other week. Run with it Amanda, run with the pink.
Oh, Hazel, don’t get me started on underwear – that is another post in itself! We know what they’re getting at with the Little Miss Naughty range and padded bras aged 9-10 render me well and truly gobsmacked! One of my daughter’s favourite tops is black (with a pink horse) she also likes brown but try to find those colours in the main shops. I’m with you on the ‘feminine not slutty’ – Perhaps we should start our own range! That’s one of the reasons I like Boden, their colours are orginal and pleasing on the eye – and much to my daughter’s pleasure they sell tops with cats on! Thanks for the book suggestion – I’m off to look that up now.
Jenny, I’d never thought of there being a problem with boys clothes too but you’re right. My daughter likes the colours in the boys section but shes not into diggers racing cars etc, so yes I feel your pain too. Who do they measure to come up with this ‘typical’ 7 – 8 – 9 year old? It’s certainly not anyone I know.
Arlene, you are scaring me! I have all that to come, I guess!
I’m sure when I was a kid clothes were less gender-specific. Most of my clothes were passed down to my brother two years later. I think this would be unheard of today! Mind you, I didn’t wear pink either!
Surely one solution would be to buy a reasonably priced sewing machine and start making some clothes? Sewing a pair of trousers actually takes less time than walking up and down the High Street and trying on seven different jeans.
You have a point. I do like sewing and I have made dresses before but the problem we have with buying jeans remains with trouser patterns. I’m not sure I would have any idea how do adjust a pattern where trousers are concerned. Any tips?
I have sewing projects lined up to keep me going for about a year. Unfortunately what with working almost full time and doing a full time MA one of my hobbies has had to give a bit – that was sewing and knitting.
Also, may be beside the point but the pleasure of having a homemade garment aside, do you find that sewing and knitting a garment now works out more expensive than buying something similar in the shop?
I have similar problems with a curvy hipped 7 1/2 year old who won’t wear pink or purple (or black??) or anything girly. Or tight. Or anything at all. She favours Mario tshirts and one remaining pair of falling apart tesco jeans. That;s it. No skirts, dresses, leggings, combats, nothing. Nothing warmer than an anorak and a pair of gloves. She has some sort of hypersensitivity mother-control syndrome that means she won’t wear ANYTHING ELSE without having screaming sobbing hysterics and clawing it all off.
It is a total nightmare.
Anyone any ideas?
Oh my daughter would LOVE a Mario t-shirt. Where did you get it from? One of her favourite pair of jeans in her last size was the Sainsbury’s value ones – but I can’t find them any more.
I feel your pain, we had a clawing episode yesterday with a pair of waterproof trousers she insisted were too tight, though I could get my hand between the waistband.
Yes, that’s another issue. I think tops are designed way too tight these days. My nine year old is actually wearing aged-13-14 in tops – I mean she is broad-shouldered but that is ridiculous!
Sigh, I know. Skinny jeans…
Next boys’ section is where we get most of our funky long sleeved tshirts – the girls’ ones have Princess Peach and frilly sleeves in pink – my daughter is disgusted.
We also get good ones in Dunne’s Stores here, but they’re not in England – sadly we just found two great shirts she liked, and even tried on uncomplainingly, but she insisted they were too long, and wouldn’t hear of having the sleeves hemmed up and inch. SIGH.
Dunnes have an online shop, but I don’t think there’s much on it.
H&M have great shirts too – in the boys’ section – the girls’ stuff is all Hello Kitty.
Late reply here, but the boys’ sections are good for plain jeans. Though I have to say that my 9-year-old loves her skinny jeans and leggings, but not because she thinks thin is in, because they go well with her t-shirts and they’re handy when riding her scooter.
Our young wan is very much a tomboy, think Justin Bieber is tragic, and adores Doctor Who and Japanese classical music (really). She likes block colours, but nothing patterned, overly-girly (bows and frills are out) or with slogans printed on. She won’t wear anything that says, “Hot Stuff”, thank Jaysus. Nor will she wear “Rock Star” or “Brat” or an RFID chip. They’re very awkward at that age. I’ve often gone shopping WITH her, only for her to change her mind about everything she got once she gets home. She has about three outfits she loves, and a million other items in her wardrobe she won’t even consider.
I actively look forward to the day she gets her first face piercing, but sadly so far she’s refused to even get her ears done. Some punk she is.