To think clothes become chavvy after age 2.

For the shorts issue, these are great! They're basically jogger shorts. Nice and loose with a drawstring waist direct.asda.com/george/clothing/10,default,sc.html

Wait til you have to buy clothes for children from about 14yo. Too big for child ranges that seem to stop at 13yo and still a bit small for adult ranges.

My kids at 8 months were dressed in a completely different style from my kids at 18 months. When they're on the move, they're grubbing about on the ground and in muddy patches and in trees and I find that pastels/light colours get very dirty and mud/dirt patches are actually quite difficult to wash out and do tend to stain a bit. So especially in cold/wet weather, it makes sense to stick to dark coloured joggers with a cheerful t-shirt and jumper (and coat if necessary). At 8 months mine were just beginning to crawl and mostly in the pram so there was much more scope for dressing them in those cute, ridiculous little baby outfits in light colours with buttons and flowers and frilly bits. But they don't work at the playground and for potty-training so we moved away from them.

Well aren't you a really nice person using that horrible classist word, OP?

I hate all the twee frugi type clothes and dungarees, especially on boys. Along with the long wavy hair to match. The leggings look awful. Don't look remotely comfortable either. Joggers are much more practical and comfortable for girls and boys.

We used to get soft corduroy elasticated trousers from JoJo's and Boden years ago.

This, I want DS to be comfortable so it's either leggings or tracksuits

Not had this issue I shop around online a lot of stores to find things. My DS1 is 2.5yrs old and he has lovely things. I often shop st Leredoute when they have 60% off.
H&M often fo lovely co-ord smatt outfits.

I don't like the crazy patterns and slogans and prints of cartoons / super heros etc etc. I like the plain and simple items.

Totally. Black tracksuit and a pair of nikes anyone? 🙈

Eh? Have you heard of boden op?

I guess I'm a bit worried too that it's the first step towards big brand slogans- Adidas etc-or football shirts. I don't want to be a slave to trends and keeping up with the peers with the latest trainers. I know idealistic but will try as long as I can.

Thanks so much, they look like they'll do the job for him!

I was thinking this my two year old is always in joggers, hate jeans for him. Have seen some nice linen type trousers on George that look comfy though

I buy a lot of ribbed leggings from Sainsbury's, they seem to stay up well for us! Like these, we've got them in various colours. They're pretty much all my son wears to nursery.

This is so off topic sorry but I've got a slim 3 year old with no waist to speak of - where do you get the leggings? The joggers issue is such a pain but I'm struggling to find leggings for boys in his size!

I love boys clothes. I don't really like muted colours and love a dinosaur print so maybe I'm the type of parent the next clothing is aimed at. I do love lots of the stuff from the white comany. Mainly because mine is so little and they seem to keep the style babyish for larger sizes.

As for the joggers, what are you taking your DC to the park in? I thought joggers would be ideal for messy days, I wouldn't put on my nice trousers to do this and I'm definitely not a chav.

Yeah see mine are a bit older. Not watching TV won't last, and in time they'll have friends with characters on t-shirts that they think are crazy cool.

As long as they fit, made of cotton and are clean I don't really care if my DDs t-shirts have a car, a flower or Spidey on them. The only thing I don't like is gendered "be kind" type slogans.

3-4

Asda is great for children's clothes. A wide variety from the garish to more muted. Good quality and the sizing seems correct. Better than Sainsbury's, h and m or marks.

I have 2 boys aged 9 and 6 and I thought the same when they were younger. I bought a lot of Frugi which was cute when they were toddlers but as they got older it started to look ridiculous to be honest. We got a couple of comments about their clothes looking like pyjamas.

Like you OP I thought the dark coloured joggers were terribly boring but as my two have got older they are a godsend tbh. Really practical and useful. My 9 year old doesn’t like tight fitting clothes so getting him into anything else other than joggers is not worth the effort - even trying to get him to wear shorts is difficult because they tend to be tighter.

That cream coloured bear jumper linked up thread looks nice but my 9 year old would never wear it because he doesn't like things he has to put over his head (prefers zip up fleeces/hoodies) and my 6 year old would get it stained very quickly.

As children get older they often wear out clothes before outgrowing them and so the need is for practical things, not ones that might be more aesthetically pleasing. Those blade and rose leggings for example - there’s a reason they don’t do them for kids over the age of 5. They look cute on a crawling baby and don’t need to be hard wearing because 1 year olds don’t tend to be kicking footballs round a park or taking part in “knee sliding contests” 😂🙄 with their friends in the school playground. I can’t imagine a pair of those leggings lasting long with my 6 year old.

I do buy the occasional brightly coloured frugi tshirt in the sales etc but again, as the boys get older they choose their own clothes in the morning and they don’t tend to reach for them. My 9yo’s favourite T-shirts are a set from Asda in plain grey or beige. Which is fair tbh. As a kid I never wanted to wear dresses or skirts and resented my dad wanting me to “dress like a girl”. I don’t see how forcing kids to wear stuff that you like is any different from that.

That being said I do think there is a trend towards getting kids to grow up quickly and this does extend to clothes. a pp mentioned that girls clothes tend to be crop tops etc - I have noticed that some boys clothes don’t seem to be age appropriate. Like I saw Sainsbury’s was selling an awful auntie tshirt a few months ago but only in toddler sizes. This doesn’t make sense to me because the David walliams books are aimed for my 9yo’s age range, not toddlers.

Yes I remember that phase being quite hard - from about 8-12 there’s little on the market that’s really suitable in affordable clothing aimed at girls.

I have mine in brights so I can spot them whizzing around the soft play / park amongst the others also running around … so I purposely buy bright clothes for over 2s 🤣. We also have some lovely clothes ( both girl and boy for over 2s too for the times they need to dressed nicely ! )

This issue then presents itself again after age 8. DD1 is tall and slim, so I buy 7-8 clothing for her (she’s 5). Once she grows out of these, it seems that everything on offer is cropped tops, inappropriate slogans etc.

There’s definitely a gap in the market for affordable clothing for children up to say age 10 that is suitable for actual children, not mini teenagers.

I think Next online has a lot better selection, the in store stuff can be a bit garish.

I've always hated the look of tracksuit bottoms so I get my son these kind of Chino type trousers but thinner material with an elasticated waist (I've actually never seen them in this country, I buy them in the gulf), cargo pants or linen blend or muslin ones.

Newbie is really good for boys trousers!

I buy from Boden, Jojo a d Frugi in the sale for my oldest and pass them down. My oldest is a girl and I have big gap so I bought quite a lot from the boy section in case we had a boy next so it could be passed down. Most stuff from the more expensive brands looks newer for much longer.

I do get quite a lot from Next too, I find their range to cover a lot of different tastes even in the older girls range (not so much the older boys). There is more online than in the shops.

John Lewis is good and they have good sales. M&S is nice up to around age 7. I like a lot of supermarket clothes up to age 6 or 7 too, especially Morrisons Nutmeg, they have denim and corduroy pinafores in winter - it's not as good quality and doesn't last as long as the expensive brands though.

I think dungarees are no good during potty training and a for a year or so after till they are very good at getting their own clothes on and off.

I don't mind jogging bottoms and leggings in nice colours and prints.