To think that DH is being an arse?

[cooki3monst3r]

Hi

I'd like to ask you all how many clothes your young DCs have, how often you do the washing and how big your dirty washing pile is!

DH just did his usual bloody moan, grumble and downright slagging off when I tried to show him DS new clothes (7 t-shirts & 2 jumpers) this evening.

Apparently a 2 yo should not have as many clothes as DS has, and if I did the washing more frequently we wouldn't have a huge pile of dirty clothes on the landing, and I would need to spend so much money on DCs clothes!

Now, bearing in mind the DCs have their child allowance go in to a savings account which is used only for them, and their clothes and shoes (and sometimes activities like dance / swimming classes) are all bought with that money only, DHs reaction EVERY time I buy the DCs some bloody clothes is really beginning to piss me off!

FYI, my DS 2yo has 10 pairs of trousers and 10 t-shirts, 2 sweaters, 4 jumpers, sister's old coat.

Does my DS really have too many clothes? I honestly don't know how I'd manage to keep him in clean clothes with less than this!

Number of tops pretty normal. I would have thought a clean pair of trousers for every day was a bit excessive. If you wash only twice a week you wouldn't need that many.
But, your money, your choice.

And Lakeland's heated airer is most definitely your friend.

p.s - AmandaClarke - Child benefit isnt really means tested though is it?

yes - if your income is over £50k its taxable now but that doesnt mean that 2 people earning £45k each don't get it.

Its the disparity about the whole thing

DH & I still receive it and earn good wages whereas my friend who is a SAHM and husband earns over the threshold, no longer gets it but they would earn less than us put together.

Plus - you can still choose to receive it even if you earn more, its just that the highest earner now has to pay it back

And why not save it? My mum did for me and it helped me through Uni and helped with our wedding and I am doing the same for DS and its building up nicely

they have lots of (mostly 2nd hand) clothes, I do one wash a day (family of 4), all week. One of these is nappies, and another bed linen so that's 5 clothes washes per week. There is always loads in the washing basket!

DixieNormas

My heated clothes airer is from Lakeland.
I love it. It holds 2 loads of washing and if I put a sheet or duvet cover over the top it dries the clothes overnight. It folds flat, or to half size, and I have it in my kitchen, which means that the kitchen is warm in the mornings.
I hardly ever use my tumble dryer.

Ds has some rugby tops from JL and they don't wash and dry well. Always shrink, even though I don't tumble them. Boden things wash fine for me though.
Whoever up thread said saving the money won't be of any use to their dc when they're older, sil saved up hers and this year gave her dd 8K to go towards the fees of buying her first house. It's made a big difference (regardless on personal feelings on what that money is given for).

I do think more clothes makes for laziness in the laundry area. If the husband is fed up with a big pile of dirty washing on the landing, you are the SAHP and he's not allowed to do the laundry because of the great wet pile then I would say sort out what you have got before buying more tbh.

A huge pile of dirty clothes would royally do my head in.

Oh dear, I haven't actually counted how many clothes dd has but it is a lot. Way more than I have. But we can afford it and I spend very little on myself, plus a lot of her clothes are second hand. I'm just a sucker for pretty toddler girls dresses, and am sure I won't go as overboard when she is older.

I don't think what you posted sounds excessive, and in a lot of places kids clothes are very cheap so YANBU.

My DD has more clothes then that, she has skin problems so I wash her stuff separate to mine with different powders, even still her stuff is so tiny it takes tons to fill the machine so our washing pile builds up even though I end up doing at least one load of washing a day, it's just a nightmare getting it dry and I hate having clothes horses everywhere.

Dd was in crèche and DH and I both worked FT when she was that age. We had to have at least 2 fulL changes in crèche as spares, and these would regularly both get used and she'd come home in a 3rd outfit borrowed from another child. So needing to have plenty of changes here, clean and ready to put into crèche, as well as not have manic t keeping on top of washing meant I have always had a lot of clothes. So she would have had about 20 bottoms and a few more than that in tops at that age. But they were cheap, and all very well used, so I didn't mind about that. And it meant I could leave. It one day to wash if we were shattered, I think we were doing about 4-5 loads a week at the time.

DH was, and still is, very handy with the washing machine too.

Fair points all round.
I suppose I am just a bit "careful" about money in some areas of my life and so I tend not to buy the majority of my DCs clothes at places like Jl, because i think they are a bit expensive considering the short period of time they will be used.m

My dd has so many clothes her wardrobe and chest of drawers are bursting

Sometimes she can go through 3 outfits a day

I do atleast one if not two wash loads a day (3 dc)

But my kids still have lots of actual items. They are messy.

It sounds like you've got as many clothes for your DC as works for you! Everyone is different. We probably have more than that partly because we get a lot of hand me downs and partly because DS is a pants wetter extraordinaire and we can go through 4 pairs a day.
I wouldn't worry about it.... And like one poster said, I wouldn't tell your DH when you buy new.

dd (4.5) has an obscene amount of clothes.

21 pairs of trousers
36 pairs of leggins
24 long sleeved tops
35 tshirts
22 dresses
28 jumpers/cardigans
5 coats
a puddle suit
a snow suit
2 pairs of wellies
a pair of shoes.

My names highway, and I have a shopaholic

That's not too many clothes! Both my dc have more than that...

But why do you have a huge pile of dirty clothes on the landing? You or dh should pop them in the wash more often...

I do a wash most days. There are 4 of us, plus football kit.

Our DS's have quite a lot of clothes, but half their wardrobe is nursery stuff (clothes I don't mind getting covered in paint/glue/etc) and the oter half is good stuff. They both need changes of clothes at nursery too, as they do lots of messy play.

I wouldn't bother showing your DH new clothes anymore. I don't. Not that mine has a problem with it (maybe some minor eye rolling), he's just not that interested.

My 2 year old has more than that because he has lots of hand me downs from ds1. I keep the decent things ds1 grows out of and then buy ds2 some new things. I do the same with dd1 and dd2.

I don't spend loads on clothes but pick up a top here and trousers there. I don't need to buy my younger two clothes at all really but I don't want them to only have their older siblings clothes IYSWIM.

my 8yo ds has less clothes, but 5yo dd has more. as long as they have enough to last at least a couple of weeks in an emergency, i dont see the problem.

Sorry to say, but your DH might be right.
I'm also one of those who can't resist buying new clothes because something IS SO CUTE. But when it comes the time to sort out outgrown clothing, a lot of items turn up worn only once or twice. Then i think... Wtf did i buy that for?

That is a fair comment Amanda. I buy Boden and JL because I like the quality and know them to last longer. Particularly coats and jeans. Tops maybe not so much of a difference.

However, without going in to my own financial circumstances, CB is available for families until one partner earns £50k. That means two partners could earn £49k each and still be entitled to CB. In my world a household income of £98k is in no way a "low income"!

highway

It sounds as if you could afford a couple of laundry baskets OP.
Leaving a pile of dirty clothes on the landing is not nice IMO.

I have a laundry basket with a lid in each bedroom, I transport the washing up and down the stairs in plastic laundry baskets.

Maybe DH just doesn't like the pile of stuff on the landing?

My DS had similar amounts, fewer trousers cos he was fussy and would only wear certain ones that he found comfortable so no point buying loads. DD has loads more but i do get a lot of hand me downs for her. Just don't show him!

How many clothes
2 boys. Both have 3 pairs trousers, 3-4 pairs shorts, 7 or so tops.

how often do you do the laundry
Never, DH does it. He tells me it's around 2 loads a day but this includes some sports clothing that gets laundered after each use. We have a tumble dryer with Eco mode (cold / low energy / takes forever to dry stuff) that runs overnight.

how big is your laundry pile
Currently around half a basket. There's a load in the machine, tonight's dryer load on and I put 2 baskets away this morning.

We had a problem drying clothes in the winter. Stick clothes through an extra spin cycle. Also we now have a washer dryer. They get a bad press but it makes all the difference to me!
We have how many clothes we can fit in the drawer and do a wash most days
2 on a bad day.