To wonder why people do this because it disturbs me?

[Gossipmonster]

On holiday in Portugal there was a family with three gorgeous boys ages approx 12 - 7.

Dressed identically for the entire week.

Why do people do this? Does it not stifle the children creating their own identity?

More importantly what happens when soneone spills something/needs to change?

Does everyone then have to change?

Mine do this rarely ..sometimes by choice ( them) and in days like tomorrow by me..... Both wearing the same t shirts as we are travelling 2 flights long transit and they are both wearing the same tops as they are easier to spot. however it is likely that DD1 will drop something down the front so the probability that they will end up in different ones is high.
I also feel sorry for DD2 who will inherit all of Dd1 stuff so be wearing the same stuff againa few years down the road. So I don't go out of my way to get the same stuff. Also they have both different colourings so prefer them in different things...

Making a 12 year old wear the same as his small siblings is just wrong.

I guess it worked for the Von Trapps.

The only matching clothes I saw that I thought were amusing was 'Thing 1' 'Thing 2' and 'Mother of all Things' - that made me smile :)

I used to put mine in fluorescent yellow sweatshirts. It worked brilliantly when we were out and about - I could spot them instantly because no other child or parent would be seen dead in fluorescent yellow

Then they got older and said that fluorescent yellow made them look like gimps

When we were kids my sister and I wore hand downs from our twin aunts, who were only a few years older. My gran tended to buy the same jackets every year, so often all 4 of us would be wearing the same. People often glared at my mum and muttered about women who didn't know about contraception if she had all of us at once.

My mum did this to me and my sister - even though we were three years apart! We didn't like it much at all. Sometimes she tried to disguise it by buying the same trousers/skirt, shoes and t shirt but adding a different coloured jumper (usually the same jumper but in a different colour iyswim).

They had at least 2 different outfits each day - it was not travelling light.

I sometimes dress my two dds the same if we're going somewhere really busy (airport etc) so if I lose one I can say 'she looks like this, only bigger/smaller'

Do the parents who do this never reuse clothes? My youngest wears 70℅ hand me downs from older sibling. I couldn't afford to get them both new clothes all the time.

Weird. I put a percentage sign in after the 70.

I dont understand why someone would buy m8re than one of an outfit. Put it on one chikd one day and the other a few days later (twins), or as a hand me down to younger siblings. Seems costly. Looks odd.

It's twee and a leedle bit pathetic and Stepfordy even for little kids but fecksake what was the 12 yr old thinking?!!! Was there no hint of rebellion?

Are you sure the 12 yr old was a child and not a humanoid? One of those weirdy creepy Japanese robot thingies?

All week sounds a bit strange, but I think it looks quite cute if it's an occasional thing

Sadly I am denied this pleasure because I had a boy and a girl, although there was a brief period where they fitted into matching sleep suits and I did take pictures

Was it the next generation of Osmonds? Did they all have very lovely teeth?

Interesting. I don't really think it's a good or bad thing but I am impressed when they somehow manage it. We know this couple with 5 kids ranging from newborn to 10? And they appear in public in matching colors. So eg they may all wear gingham shirts and blue sweaters and beige bottoms. all of them. Sometimes dad too.

I do this with winter coats or special outfits during the year, and my family will buy the girls matching things too. The girls like it and it's easiest to spot them. I sometimes buy an item in three different sizes so that things still match as they're handed down.

I don't think they are trying hard enough.

If they are pairing them up for easy identification when lost, what they really need a custom printed t-shirts with a photo of them as a family group in identical clothing, so they are wearing immediate identification to point to when asked for a description. Even better if they were holding up a sign in the photo, with the emergency telephone number printed on it for children too young to remember it.

I went on an outing with the children's centre once. They advised taking a photo of your own child/ren before the trip set off, so if they got lost you had an up to date photo to show to the search party. That's organised.

I'm definitely going to do all of this the next time we go out

I've never heard of that. Sounds v creepy!!!

There was a woman on supernanny who did this. She had a set of boy twins and a set of boy-girl twins but dressed all the boys the same so if one got dirty she changed all three. Needless to say supernanny wasn't impressed.

Sometimes people buy my twins identical clothes but one will claim both sets. They have very different styles in clothes.

Ps even creepier is when parents dress the same as their offspring.

I like matching clothes on my 3 and 5 year olds. Sometimes for special occasions and day trips I put them in matching or colour co'ordinated outfits...not all the time though.

I have bought them matching neon orange swim shorts and baseball caps, which is the only thing really planned that way...if I take my eye off them at the beach/local lido, it makes them really easy to spot. The baseball caps are also fab when out in crowds, you can't miss them, so that's a safety thing.

Oooo, I like the idea of just having one holiday outfit though. If you bring 5 pairs of identical shorts and 7 identical t-shirts then you don't have to change your whole outfit when you spill red wine ribena on your t-shirt.

I don't like to see children dressed in matching outfits.

I'm from Portugal and know a few people who do this. It's a posh thing, nothing to do with ease of spotting (culturally the Portuguese mind would not have though of doing it for safety reasons, appearance comes first!)

It is very odd indeed. Specially when you see a 10 year old girl wearing the same frilly dress as her 3 year old sister!