To wonder why people with lots of money dress their kids so badly?

The wonderful freedom of being a toddler and not a fashion model or even uniform wearing school child ...isn't that wonderful?

Team freedom.

Why would people in Mayfair want to signify they are middle class? They're upper class. @JacquelineShit

Don't have loads of money but could afford to buy DC new clothes if I could be bothered. Am not though and happy to use hand me downs from relatives - saves money, time and less waste plus I don't care if something gets dirty and damaged in messy play etc

If you have a strong attachment to money, you will need to dress to impress others.

Those that have money have nothing to prove.

Maybe they don't have as much money as you think they do? Water is quite expensive in some areas after all. Are these unkempt dc arriving with dirt smeared on their clothes and faces with the prerequisite snot in attendance as was the case with the poorer dc of yesteryear?

Or do they just not meet your own standards of presentation, which quite frankly if they align with the SM norm, is just bland beige and fools nobody.

I find it very odd that anyone gives a fuck about toddler style

Well said. I agree.

It’s considered common to spend a lot of money on your small children’s clothes. Unless it’s for a wedding or christening etc.

I'm not in the UK but live in a wealthy part of my city. I never see "well dressed" toddlers/young kids. They are all wearing mismatched and somewhat scruffy clothes. Despite having money, parents don't seem to care about clothing and just dress for practicality. Even the parents themselves don't dress up around here. Everything is laid back, even something like a kids birthday party is very relaxed just at a local park or similar and no one would be wearing nice outfits. I think it's true that they have no one to impress and it's probably also a cultural thing. It would be nice to dress up sometimes but overall I enjoy not having the pressure of trying to make sure my kids are always looking perfect.

I went to Amsterdam zoo and the kids look like what you describe. I actually think they were probably quite expensive

Agreed. My mum was a ‘cool’ hippy type that liked to signify to others how laidback she was by letting us wear threadbare old clothing and growing our hair past our knees.

I cringe looking at our childhood photos. We don’t look carefree and boho, we look neglected and grubby. She still maintains we loved looking like this - tbh I think she talked us into thinking we liked it.

😂

By the time mine was 2 she chose her outfit and dressed herself. So if it didn't match I didn't care.... However some mornings the argument about brushing her hair wasn't worth it..... She now brushes and does her own hair at 6....

They probably prioritise natural materials, either organic (and probably very expensive) or 2nd hand to avoid toxic load....

Same reason working class generally have much cleaner houses

mc are educated good jobs etc and don’t worry someone will remove their children etc

I don’t get the whole ‘dressing for practicality’ though. What’s practical about a sparkly frock for the park? Or wellies for an indoor group? My 3 year old hates wearing his wellies as ‘I can’t run fast in them’. There’s nothing comfier and more practical than leggings and sweatshirt, no 5 layers of scratchy wool and twisted tights and silly shoes needed.

Yes contradict their beliefs in multiple other areas most probably.

I'm from a slightly posh background, but we were capital rich cash poor. I used to wear my cousins hand me downs, and I did similar with my DC. We'd brush hair but wouldn't try to tame it. Happy for toddlers to look a bit feral. Growing up there was no money for new clothes but money for a pony and private education.

When mine were toddlers you could never tell whether I’d brushed their hair if it was more than 30 seconds after I’d done it! Two children with very curly and very fine hair that basically always looked like it had never seen a brush because it frizzed into a ball.

At a toddler group or soft play etc it would always look particularly bad because they’d be rolling around, running about, the plastic at soft play would make it static.

And my eldest used to twiddle her fingers round her hair as a comfort thing, sort of a thumb-sucking alternative. We used to have to cut bits out where she’d knotted it badly in her sleep, so it was never all the same length and always had small knots where twiddle it in the pram or while walking.

I certainly wouldn’t judge a parent for what a toddler’s hair looked like.

Multiple Chelsea tractors on the school run springs to mind.

Look I'm not pretending to have lots of money or anything, quite the opposite

But if you brush their hair they unbrush it again pretty sharpish and I am astonished if anybody can keep track of what size clothing their DC are in TBH, I am frequently taking mine out and then realising they are showing several inches of ankle <clutches Victorian pearls>

They don't stay the same size for more than 5 minutes, so yeah I absolutely buy them stuff which is too big and/or hand stuff down directly from siblings even when it needs to be rolled up.

DH is forever buying them stuff which just fits and it drives me mad, it's too small by the time it's been through the wash a couple of times, it seems like such a waste!

Hmmm… I did just vote YABU because I cast my mind back to my rich friend’s kids and their kids were always impeccably dressed in high end clothes. But now I think back, my own two (they’re teenagers now) … well I choose my battles with toddlers and if they wanted to wear something mental I didn’t really care as long as it was weather appropriate! They probably looked mental most days back then (ps we weren’t and still aren’t rich 😝)

Within reason, I wouldn't notice or care. If the clothes are safe, cleanish and weather appropriate, they're kids, and if they choose wildly mismatched stuff, who cares?
Obviously if you mean they're in something too tight/unsafe, then I would worry if the parents were struggling, even if they appear rich, and would think if there was anything I could do to help.

Snob

God I notice this all the time too. It’s as if they’ve gone out their way to dress their kids in awful mismatched outfits. The confidence thing is maybe a point but I don’t think it’s the whole point as I see immaculate parents with kids dressed like that so it doesn’t add up.