am I the only one...

[hatstand]

who thinks it's totally unnessaery to buy 2 pairs of shoes for a 5 year old. Am I the only one who suspects that this dichotomy between clompy black horrible school shoes and fancy suede boots with flowers on is just a con to get us to buy more then we need. What on earth is wrong with navy shoes with a couple of small details on taht they can wear with everything? grrrrrr.

who would like to buy a pair of "covered" (ie not t-bar and not mary-janes) for my daughter for winter. Or is it only boys that need practical shoes?

who thinks soft baggy velour trousers are ideal for a 3 year old until she picks them off the rack and finds they have "babe" written on the bum?

who is annoyed by the fact that she picks up two mroe pairs of velour trousers to find they all have writing on teh bum?

who thinks we have less choice, less quality and more tat "these days"?

who doesn't want to dress her dds exclusively in pink and purple?

who had a really bad retail experience today?

sod the lot of them. It's enough to turn me into a hippy.

Aw, Hatstand!

Don't have a DD (or if I do, she's in utero and doesn't have velour so much as vernix), but if I did, would agree on the pink and lilac thing.

As for shoes, just bought DS his first proper pair today (his second ever pair!) - red ones. They'll go with everything, whether they do or not

Hatstand - TOTALLY TOTALLY agree about the SERIOUSLY ANNOYING habit of making ALL girls clothes in pink or lilac with slogans like 'Babe' 'princess' 'cute' on them. I HATE THEM. ANd DP has threatened to kill the first person that buys our 9 month old dd anything with Princess written on it!

My very first post on MN was on this subject. I have a 4yr old boy and was always annoyed by the fact that there is 3 times as much girl's clothing in the shops as there is for boys. But when you look into it properly you find it's all the same - as you've described already - and it's complete cack most of it!

Have you tried looking on ebay - you can do a search with '-pink' in it and it excludes all items with 'pink' in the title/description. My dd wears red & white or red & navy quite a bit but I find it really hard to avoid pink entirely.

H & M is the only way to go if you don't like pink /purple and don't want to start buying out of expensive hippy or boden catalogues...

I'm having a hard time finding decent BOOTS for DD - age 2.3 but with a long foot. All I can find are Timberland ones. For £30! For a 2 year old? I don't THINK so! Of course, the girl ones are ALL pink.

I so agree Hatstand. Next is one of the worst culprits. For girls, Petit Bateau have some great non pink colours, but it's so expensive. But if you have an outlet centre near you, eg. Bicester Village, it might be worth trawling your way there to buy last year's clothes.

I agree H&M is great - it's basically cheap Boden. But I have to drive or get the train to my nearest H&M which sticks in teh throat a bit cos I live walking distance from a big town centre so on eth whole I try to avoid it.

Wait til they are taller - i have a 7yo who the shops want me to put in crop tops, plunging necklines and inappropriate words on the front

She is not a hooker - she is a 7yo girl - I don't need to put her in little velvet dresses with lace collars - just something that covers her in the winter and doesn't have "sexy" "jailbait" or "love me?" written on it

do you mean wellies expat? you can get red or blue ones in woollies for only a couple of quid.

Was going to say H&M as well - a good range, good value and they wash and last well (unlike George stuff ime). We have a shop in town selling gorgeous soft baby bootees for £75! For children who can't walk yet and won't be wearing them for more than 3 months anyway!

Totally agree about the lack of mid range sensible warm shoes for girls (my mother will be laughing in her grave to hear me say that!) Our school asks for wellies to be left at school all term so they can do outdoor stuff in bad weather - so we all end up buying two pairs and keeping one at home. I have two dds, so this term I have bought

2 x school shoes
4 x wellies
2x daps
2x outdoor shoes for winter
2x smart shoes for parties ( gave in to begging in a moment of weakness).

I like purple, tbh, but hate hate hate any writing or logos on clothes.

i hate pink and lilac too - so naff
it's the same for boys though - too much stereotyped military or boring beige + navy, and silly slogans too

but the pink can seriously get you down I think

hatstand

huge round of applause

Octobernow - "daps" - is that what I call 'plimsolls' and round here most folk call 'pumps' - i.e. little black shoes for doing p.e. in ? Funny how there are Regional differences isn't it?

PS - I like purple too - but proper purple not wishy washy lilac!

i have the problem that although i might buy non pink clothes for dd, she won't wear them. she won't even wear her nursery sweatshirt as its red, she says its boy clothes!. her room is painted green and when she was little, i always dressed her in anything but pink. but in the last year, she's 3.75, she's gone pink mad.

don't get me started on girls shoes, thats one subject that i get a bit riled about!

Another vote here for H&M. I got my dd (20 months)a fab pair of turquoise cord jeans with lovely appliquied hearts on the knees and a bright green long sleeved t-shirt with a velvet heart on the front. Under a tenner for the pair. I really felt they were proper childrens clothes not just common pink glittery tat. Good quality too as they both washer really well!

btw if you know anyone who goes over to France then you can get lovely, decent quality, non tarty girl's clothes in blue and other colours

'Princess on board' car thingies really P me off, too.

my dd(3) has only one pair of outdoor shoes at the moment, which are lace-up ankle boots. She does have some wellies, some slippers for indoors and some doodles for nursery . That's it!

My dd does love pink, though, and I don't mind her wearing it, but I do draw the line at writing on the bum!

OK - I probably should parp myself but WHO buys their daughters high heeled shoes? The damage that can be done to developing feet, bones, hips, posture, backs, you would have to be crazy to let your child wear heels!

also, for boys and firls, there are some loverly clothes in dpam - they have a website too, and not much pink

firls = girls

Although 'princess' aptly describes a lot of the yummies around these here parts. So maybe the car stickers are for themselves?

OK. Opinions please.
H&M - my nearest is half hour away on train (or car but no easy parking - Leeds) but I will go if it's really as good as everyone says for non-pink clothes. BUT, what are the sizes like ? DD is average weight and length but has short chubby legs and wears cotton nappies so alot of trendy clothes, particularly trousers, just don't fit her.

PS - what is all this 'parping' business? What does it mean ?

Octobernow, you are welsh and I claim my £5. Daps!!!!!! Great word

Do you think the pink thing is a recent development? I can remember having one vaguely pink dress when I was little.

Have you tried Pumpkin Patch? They do, unfortunately, do some hideously pink clothes, but also have some lovely blue and green clothes this autumn, along with a quite nice burgundy/purple range.

Unfortunately, they also sell clothes with horrible writing on.

I absolutely hate almost all the clothes in Next because they are so horribly pink/lilac/embroidered/sparkly/frilly/adult/yuck.

Pumpkin Patch