to think that jeans should fit the age that they say

[lifesamystery]

I have been looking for jeans for my fairly normal sized 13 year old but have really struggled to get a pair that actually fit her. She found some that she liked in Gap but I have not seen many 13 year olds that would actually fit into their age 13 jeans. They seem to be made for very skinny children!! Is it just me? Do other people struggle to find childrens clothes that fit their children?

Thing is in Gap, for example, they only go up to age 13 so she would need an adult size and these are twice as expensive!!!! This seems to be discrimination against normal sized children!

I always measure the DCs before buying clothes. DD is aged 12 but is tall for her age and I often buyclothes meant for older children. As for DS, I end up buying clothes labelled for one age for his top half and a different age for his bottom half because he's long in the body.

It can be a nightmare, and on checking sizes online I find I get different ages for the DCs height so have given up in sizing by age.

I think most people were sharing their experience, like you asked, rather than showing off how skinny their children are

YANBU. My 9 year old currently wears 12-13 year old clothes and my 6 year old is mostly in 3-4 years. The only place I've found were they're mostly spot on is Next, unfortunately for me I can't afford to shop in there very often so I'm stuck with Primark, Asda and Tesco.

Redwhiteandblue
Where did you find age 2 trousers??? will make mental note for when DS starts school

Sorry lifesamystery.
Not a skinny stealth boast at all. Mine are bang on 50 centiles and I find clothes big.
Namely H&M, mothercare, Gap ( they just confuse me because they have age 2, 3 etc but in Gap Kids it goes to XS which is massive on my 5 yr old who has grown out of baby Gap)

I think it's money saving to not make heights. H&M sell age 1-2 and 2-4 and 4-6. Well of course it only fits when they are 18m, 3 and 5. Stuff the in between.

The waist sizes on kids clothes has definitely got bigger over the years.

All my kids are lean and have no 'puppy' fat.

Yet when DS1 (20yrs) was growing up, I always bought clothes for his age and they fitted.

Same with DS2 (13yrs) ....up until he reached about 8 or 9 and then I realised the waste sizes were much larger for his age than they were with DS1.

It's the same with DS3 (nearly 10yrs) ...the 'average' waist size for his age swamps him and I have to look for 'slim fit'.

'Slim fit' is just the 'normal' fit my DS1 used to wear.

I have struggled with jeans since 'skinny' fit became fashionable, technically the jeans fit my kids but they refuse to wear them and complain they are too toght and uncomfy. Less tapered legs and a higher waistband works better for them.

My DTDs are very tall, very leggy and very skinny (they don't take after me!). DTD2 would be in age 8-9 waist and age 13 leg if I could custom make her clothes.

I buy her long and lean jeans from gap outlet as they seem to come closest to all round fit. Even with adjustable waist bands most have a rubbish fit cos it needs gathering too much. In fact I'm tempted to say that since the introduction of the adjustable waist manufacturers have started making the waists bigger.

DD3 is not a normal size either. She is 6 but has little legs and long torso. She has had a growth spurt over summmer which has evened this out but last winter she was weaing 5-6 tops but 2-3/3-4 bottoms. Was annoying that I couldn't buy a 2 piece set :(.

In conclusion...there is no such thing as a normal sized child in terms of clothes. All I know is that when they grow out if age 8 clothes in a given brand you need to buy age 9...that's about as much use as the sizing gets :)

OP, whilst I don't have DC your DD's age, I expect that the reason you're struggling with finding suitably sized clothing is because the older that children get, the more difficult it becomes to create a "uniform" size that will fit all. When they're younger, there's not TOO much size difference between boys and girls of a certain age, whereas when they hit adolescence, then they're so much closer to adulthood, and you only have to look around you to see how different we all are in height and build and shape.

As I said, DS is much younger so I don't have any experience shopping for older children, but I'd be reluctant to accuse people of "showing off" when they say that the sizes come up big.

I personally find clothes for DS's age group RIDICULOUSLY big - and I don't mean just in the waist/leg/length, but everywhere...

DS is 5 in a couple of weeks, and is really quite tall for his age, and yesterday I had to take back a pair of jeans to H&M because of this issue.

They were for 3-4 year olds, but were 3 inches too long, the crotch was hanging more than a couple of inches below his backside, and I had to move those elasticated buttons on the inside along 5 holes on each side just to stop them from falling down.

When I returned them, I asked the sales person to hold them up and tell me how many 3 year olds she'd met that were that size - she looked quite shocked and said, "Not a one!". She also said it was far from the first time people had complained about the sizing.

The main issue I find with younger children's clothing is that for every inch they add onto the length of a pair of trousers, they add an inch to the waist too. As if all children are going to grow up to become spheres! It's very irritating, and I'm getting weary of having to hunt up and down just for some basic clothes, and then have to try to guess what will fit and what won't fit (because the ages clearly mean nothing), and then have to take stuff back when it doesn't fit...

I've often sat at class assemblies looking at all the children born within a year of each other and the range of sizes they are, some are head and shoulders above others, even in infant school.

My DD is nearly ten and half the time I'm already buying adult clothes for her - she's at least 5ft tall and is already hitting puberty so is developing hips, and has inherited my thighs, poor thing. Height wise, clothes for age 13 are about right, but because all the jeans at H&M and so on are super-skinny these days, they are impossibly tight in the leg.

Meanwhile lots of her school friends barely come up to her shoulder and can only be wearing clothes in age 6-7. Sizing of children's clothes is never going to work for everyone.

a thirteen year old could be five one or five 9 though. how can they have age thirteen.

try being 34 and an age 13 in trousers it sucks.

children come in all shapes and sizes- blaming the shops is just silly.

I do think it is fair enough to blame the shops for selling in age size, they could sell by actual size instead.

Most children's clothes labels have a height as well as an age IME. Comes in very handy

I don't think people came on this post to brag how skinny their children are.

My almost seven year old is thin, she weighs 18.5 kg and has not had jeans that fit her in approx 2 years. They are always too big in the waist and too short. My MIL buys her clothes that are a size 4-5, but I ( like a pp) have a mental block about buying clothes that are younger. I tend to let her wear jeans as capris, or she wears a lot of skirts and tights.

I wasn't stealth boasting either I was trying to sympathise with the difficulty of finding clothes that fit, and sharing how I'd found it difficult for years with dd - it's not something I'm happy and boastful about ffs, it's been a PITA to not be able to get her trousers that fit without bunching stupidly.

I like Tammy as the clothes are labelled with height as well as age, much better and the fit seems better too for my dd. M and S are rubbish - she has an age 12 school skirt and you have to hoik both elastics to the end, then she can't pull it down easily for PE. It's a pain.

OK, perhaps people weren't boasting, I just found it odd that no one else was saying that the clothes are too small and that everyone was missing the pint at if clothes are labelled to fit children, then they should fit average children!

I want stealth-boasting either. How have you come to the conclusion that your child is average?

lifesamystery I don't think anyone was missing the point at all. In fact, what almost everyone was saying is that it is impossible to say what "average" is for a 13 year old, so how can they make average sized clothes? Some girls that age are barely 5 feet tall. Others (like my friend's DD) are almost 5ft7 - how can anyone garner the "average" out of that?

I, too, agree that leg length/chest size should be on the clothes, not just random age.

Just to top off the whole thing, after having returned DS's jeans to H&M, I've had to buy 24-36 month old jeans from Mothercare for him!! They're the only ones that are the perfect length! A nearly-5 year old wearing 2 year olds' clothing - RIDICULOUS

Well, there are such things as growth charts that give centiles for height and weight. You can also check bmi readily. I think that it is reasonable to assume hat a child that is around the 50th centile is about average. I agree that children are different, so why sell clothes by age at all? I had my dd with me, by the way and she was trying clothes on. She started, understandably, with ones that showed her age!