kid clothes

Sitting here thinking of the injustice, or just foolishness of buying kids a brand new wardrobe in late August of every year. All my kids grow at least 4-6 inches between August and December of every year. So I spend a ton of cash to buy them the obligatory school clothes, like my mom did for me, and her parents did for her… and then I have to do it all over again in December because all of those hardly worn clothes don’t fit anymore by Christmas. Go figure. Of course I really don’t have room to complain. Some people are actually spending hard earned cash on NEW clothes!!! I go to the Village Discount Outlet where I can buy gently (and sometimes not so gently) used clothes for pennies on the dollar. This year I did an outrageous thing though… I spent $170 on clothes for 4 teens. I felt so guilty for spending that much that I almost got sick. But we bought the best stuff they had there. All the stuff that LOOKED brand new, and those shirts with cool sayings . Then I realized that most of our nation buys brand new stuff for their children, and for themselves, and most of those people are lucky if they get away with $200 per kid. And then I realized another thing, my kids are learning that used isn’t bad. Of course I bought them New under things (I have a prejudice against used under things, as well as a fear of the creeping crud you can get from used under things). But when I showed them the bag of New under things from K-Mart at almost $70, and the 5 bags (that are 3 times the size of the K-mart bags) for $100. They were like “whoa, how can that be right???” and they shook their heads in amazement. Four packs of underwear and 4 bra’s is equal to 8 pairs of jeans and about 30 shirts and 20 pairs of socks. Go figure. So I figure, in the long run I am teaching them a little something about value. Really perception too… because the whole NEW clothes for school thing is more about how you feel about yourself than about where you bought the clothes. Some kids are taught to feel better about themselves with certain brand names etc. My kids know that how you feel about yourself has more to do with your relationship with Jesus than about Tommy Hilfigger or Joe Boxer. And so we have fun shopping and finding the best deal. I think I am going to make that a game here soon. We will all pile into the car and head for Village Discount Outlet and I’ll give them $10 each and say who ever gets the most good quality stuff for the least amount of money wins and gets to keep the change! Of course that would entail me getting a job… hope hope hope…