To buy baby clothes from Ebay?

[memoo]

Long story short, I'm pregnant with my 3rd, baby isn't due til sept but we are absolutly broke, struggling to pay the rent let alone buy new baby things.

So I decided to start buying a few little things each week from ebay. I've bid on some babygrows and a pramsuit, both used but look lovely and clean.

I was casually telling a work colleague about it today and she turn her nose up when I told her I was getting stuff from ebay. She said she "would never put her baby in second hand clothes" and "you don't know where they've come from" she went on to go on about how baby clothes aren't really expensive anyway etc etc

Maybe I'm being over sensitive but she made me feel really bad, as though I was getting second best for my baby but the way I look at it is that the baby won't know or care and newborns are only in stuff for 5 minutes so even second hand stuff will have lots of wear left in them.

Like I said, maybe I am being over sensitive (pregnancy hormones are raging) but she has made me feel like I'm not doing the best for my baby.

Is it really so bad to get second hand clothes for a new baby?

Message withdrawn

Most people I know who buy second hand clothes have more than enough money to buy new, although I appreciate there are many who can't. If I could get my head round the idea I would too. In fact the people I know who get the most hand outs have the most money too!! One girl I know got a whole handmade kitchen for free and her DH was earning £400 a day.
My dc goes to a Montessori, in Clifton, it's very fairly middle class. There are 'second hand' competitive conversations all the time!

so why is it sad if you don't buy the 'first few months' things new? Sadder than later?

I confess to liking dd's (eg) birthday and christmas dresses to be new, but that's just because it means I have more scope to choose something that's just right rather than being constrained to what's on ebay / in charity shops / in handed down bundles at that particular time.

I love eBay,there is nothing wrong with buying baby clothes off eBay.Times are hard,as long as the clothes are clean etc who cares??

Yes MN can be very catty, and if daftpunk hadn't stereotyped mums who buy 2nd hand so she wouldn't have annoyed me. It's obvious that all sorts of people use 2nd hand clothes on their DC. And I am an ethical, arguably hippy-dip type, fwiw -- Am I supposed to be embarrassed about that??

The flip side of daftpunk is that those of us who didn't even buy 2nd hand -- I was GIVEN most my DC clothes (pre-loved), is

• I can gloat about how much money I've saved,
• if the kid gets something mucky or stained or torn, I don't get upset because I've got heaps of other stuff for them to wear; they get to be kids,
• I enjoy the potluck nature of it, I get a large variety of styles to choose from,
• I don't have to traipse around the shops seeking the right value/style/ethical status, I have better things to do with my time.

The baby inside matters, the clothes come and go daily so of course they don't matter.

Some things taste quite nice cooked in the microwave, eh?

Have you heard of Freeganism, daftpunk? If you really want to freak yourself out...

Kizzib, what if one of your DC throws up on the other one? Will you throw the child away as well?

the thing about stereotypes is,... they're usually true.

dd is (this is, sadly, completely true) known as the best-dressed girl in the village. Strangers stop me in the street asking where we get the stuff. MEN say 'what a lovely raincoat!' Other mothers ask if they can buy it when she's grown out of it. She thinks that another way to say hello is 'hey, nice shoes!', so often is it said to her. The most I've ever paid for dd's clothes was £18 for the most beautiful French coat you've ever seen. Average is £10 for a pair of barely-worn Pom D'Api Mary-Janes.

I looove Ebay.

You know, I always stereotype people who won't use second hand as common wannabes....

I couldn't possibly comment jeee

Yes, that's put it better than I managed, jeee!

Common wannabees, snob, hypocrite..
Listen to yourselves; what a pack of cackling bitches you are - and about such an inane subject.
Go and do something useful.

Gateau, why do you come here? It always seems to make you so angry.

I guess it's somewhere to vent my anger. Would rather do it here than in RL with people who matter to me.

Daftpunk the reason I was unhappy with your previous posts was the suggestion that buying cheap clothes possibly made in swaetshops is ethically sound.

By daftpunk on Tue 27-Jan-09 21:57:42
i'm keeping them employed by buying new...so i'm actually doing them a favour.

And gateau arguing this point does not make it a cat fight in a playground!

What you do or don't do is of little concern but I for one would rather save my money now for a time when my dds start to become more aware and would like to choose their own clothes (mixed in with the second hand of course {grin])

I can see you geniunely believe that a baby should be dressed in new, I don't agree. I only hope you think when you shop...

I agree, Doris on the ethical shopping point.

The rest is just background noise really, but the morality of buying cheap clothes is important.

Throwing away clothes because a baby might have been sick on them? Odd very odd.

And Asda clothes are ok, my DC sometimes wear them but I would rather have 2nd hand Next, Pampolina or whatever.

i don't think the conditions in those factories are as bad as you would have me believe..i can't believe asda/tesco etc would use them if they were exploiting people (maybe they were...but not now)...and my point about doing them a favour is right...if they wern't working in factories god knows what "industry" they'd be working in....think about it.

You are kidding right? You think Asda and Tesco are big and cuddly? Did you miss the stories the other week about Primark's sweatshops?

"After all employees who are constantly working under unfavourable circumstances have to bear the brunt. Work is under-control across the Bangladesh garment sector. Appalling working atmosphere has been brought to light in the Bangladesh garment industry.

A research reveals that 90 percent of the garment employees went through illness or disease during the month before the interviews. Headache, anaemia, fever, chest, stomach, eye and ear pain, cough and cold, diarrhoea, dysentery, urinary tract infection and reproductive health problems were more common diseases. The garment factories gave bonus of different diseases to the employees for working. With a view to finding out a link between these diseases and industrial threats, health status of employees has been examined before and after coming in the garment work. At the end of examination, it was come out that about 75 percent of the garment workforce had sound health before they entered the garment factory. The reasons of health declines were industrial threats, unfavourable working environment, and want of staff facilities, inflexible terms and conditions of garment employment, workplace pressure, and low wages. Different work-related threats and their influence on health forced employees to leave the job after few months of joining the factory; the average length of service was only 4 years.

The garment sector is disreputable for fires, which are said to have claimed over 200 lives in the past two years, though exact figures are tough to find. A shocking instance of absence of workplace safety was the fire in November 2000, in which almost 50 workers lost their lives in Narsingdi as exist doors were closed."

Source

What other industry they'd be working in is irrelevant. If people cared about their clothes then there would be pressure on these companies to improve working facilities - same job, better conditions. But most people don't care, so things don't improve.

daftpunk, I have seen the factories in China and know people who work in them. It is not uncommon for people to be paid to turn a blind eye. There is an acceptable level of corruption in countires that provide cheap labour.

countries

I have volunteered in a charity shop now for just over a yeara nd I wouldn't hand clothes into them as I have seen how they are fought over by staff as in 'oh I'll hold that back for my grand daughter or my DD will like that' and then they have the cheek to use a staff discount so truth of the matter is I don't wnt my stuff to be handed over to be picked at I'd rather they went to someone who actually wanted/needed them. Yes it may be a bit hypocritical as of course there are people using Ebay who have that spare cash but I'd rather that and then Ican buy my DS soemthing else nice and I also do buy some new things for DS as well as 2nd hand but selling stuff on Ebay benefits everyone really, means I can make a bit of much needed cash for my DS's birthday/day trip help towards bills whatever and I can see my stuff being passed on to someone who needs it. And the money that I save by using Ebay also helps a lot in our household.

Tesco and Asda use sweatshop (if you'll excuse the Mail)

Your naiveity is touching You are presenting yourself as very ignorant unenlightened.

Think you need to go and google 'sweatshop' and Primark IS guilty, sure they all have "ethical" policies but for many it's just lip service.

And as for lovely hygienic and new Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha HA HA, and there are no worries about the care of the staff (and children) using unpleasant chemicals that damage their health nor any safety precautions.