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.

I paid nearly £30 for a pair of properly fitted Clarks shoes for dd1.I also bought her a pair of £2.75 wellies from ASDA.Guess which she insists on wearing all the time?

Agree about H & M babies clothes-far better than anywhere else.

witchycat your dd sounds adorable with her chubby legs and cotton nappies! bet she's so cute

Witchycat - The H&M cords I bought had an adjustable elastic thing in the waistband (I've only ever seen it before in maternity trousers)so I'd say they may suit your dd and I think it probably would be worth an expidition particularly as the womens wear is fairly fab too!

I could rant for hours about crap boys clothes, sickened by yet another shopping trip today faced with acres of beige and blue with "Here Comes Trouble" (no, here comes my son) and "I'm a Cheeky Monkey" (no, you aren't, you're a nice little boy) plastered all over them. Is this the future of the human race? Reduced to "babes" and "cheeky monkeys"?

On a positive note, I find the boys section in Mothercare yields some lovely things if you can trawl through some crap to find it. A lot of what I've bought there would be suitable for boys or girls - soft green trousers and top set, red short dungarees, orange trousers, stripy loose leggings in shades of blue.

I HATE slogans on clothes.

I try and buy 'plain' things for my two but I bought DS some trousers from Tesco and unbeknown to me they have 'Born To Be Bad' stitched on the back pocket. WTF is that about? It is so brattish and vile!

I like pink, I wear it a lot myself, what I hate is the mud coloured boys clothes that are dull, dull, dull!

I am continually shocked by the poor quality of clothes, although as I sew myself I understand the time and effort that goes into creating well made clothes and that just isn't possible at the prices we pay at the Primark's of this world, unless that have been made by other children in unspeakable conditions.

I buy little that is new for my dd, what I do buy new is from TK Maxx or I buy it in the sales a year ahead and put it away. Often I buy off ebay as I have found that people tend to look after more expensive clothes so they really are "gently worn"

I try not to dress my daughter in exclusively pink or purple and despise Barbie stuff but now and again I relent. So today she wore a pair of Barbie cords - that are actaully quite nice as they are from the green range with a cord jacket we customized and a rather hideous Barbie T Shirt - but it was bearly noticeable.

I went into Lytham today and saw some beautiful purple clothes but they were a deep purple by a designer called Beetlejuice although having looked them up online there summer clothing is quite hideous.

I try and buy quite bright and colourful clothes that are as far removed from the Barbie norm as possible, things like Oililly, Balu and uttam although as they are so expensive I tend to buy from ebay.

I als hate slogans or brands on clothes, the reason I rarely buy from next, although my dd had a very cute pair of graffiti/punk boots last year that were too cute for words.

I'm lucky that ds2 wears ds1's cast offs and ds1 (now almost13) just trusts me to buy him skater/surf stuff that I can get at Peacocks. I really hate all the rubbish in shops for kids - it doesn't get better as they get older. I'm glad that neither of mine do the label thing - they wouldn't anyway, because I wouldn't buy it for them!

Are you any good with a sowing machine hatstand?

oooh hatstand, yes, yes,yes,yes, yes, etc etc

Dd1 is not your typical girlie. She has camouflage waterproofs, owns no skirts or dresses, never wears pink or purple, and it's a nightmare trying to find things for her to wear. She is not fussy about her clothes, just doesn't like the very narrow range of clothing for her age range!

We are on a tight budget with a limited range of shops to buy from (basically, MacKays or charity shops - never come to Fort William for the shopping !), so mainly get boys stuff or I buy/get given stuff by mumsnetters! It's a nightmare and I'm constantly irritated by it.

I must admit to liking having different shoes for school and ones for out of school.

I adore pink/lilac and so does dd so most of her clothes are this colour. However her clothes are anything but tarty.

its for precisely these reasons, i'm stocking up on clothes for my two DDs whilst where still in france! choice is wider, lots more blues, greens, orange, dark purples for girls ... in fact not much is in pink or lilac,

next briefly flirted last year with some more moderate stuff. dd2 had two lovely pairs of cords - very soft and lined with cotton. one beige with a wee bit of pink trim, the others red. She also had a pair of beige ones with a couple of dark red flowers - but this year they seem to have gone back again. I mean SLOGANS ON THE BUM???

Couldn't agree more hs. Dd (5) has had one pair of shoes at a time,all of which have been kept for her baby brother.

It's all a huge scam. I've just bought a load of clothes and shoes from a girl in my village for ds. £21 all in.
Saves me a boring trip to identikit shops.
He couldn't care less either way.
Dh loves it when I'm 'careful'with money.

Everyone's happpy.

Hatstand - you are not alone (obviously ) but I have to say, dd is 11 and it doesn't get better...!?

Oh, and Vertbaudet are also good for more unusual colours and general absence of babe slogans. The styles are cute but in an old-fashioned way - culottes and cardies, not crop tops and hot pants.

DS1 (5) has 2 pairs of shoes.

His smart black shoes which he uses for school (which cost me £10 )

and his spiderman trainers (complete with flashing lights ) that DH bought for £7.99 in woolworths - he wears them at most other times.

Ohhhhhh! parp parp parp Hooooot Hoooooot!

This is my petulant subject!

I hate that clothing designers seem to think they should draw attention to a 3 year old girl's backside. I don't even have a daughter and I hate it!

I hate trawling through the dank sludge that is boy's clothing. It's just a tiny rack of blue, grey and olive green. With the odd splash of Explosion Orange on the front.

and the writing on the t shirts! They might as well write "I'M GOING TO BE IN BORSTAL WHEN I GROW UP"

or "TREAT ME LIKE I'M THICK, I EXPECT IT ANYWAY"

why can i not find a cheap pair of trainers that don't have anything to do with football? I cannot obtain trousers that are not joggers or jeans, and all the joggers are grey or navy.

My little boy is 2.5, I want him to look like the sweet natured little boy he is, not the bad tempered teenager he may become in 10 years.

What is wrong with pastel blue for boys? Soft materials? It feels like sandpaper compared to some of the girls clothes.

And is it too much to ask, that when some high street shops bring in some more age appropriate clothes, in nicer colours, that they don't jack the prices up too much?

It probably is.

Am on a budget btw, dearer clothes are nicer.

I will be banished from MN forever, my DS2 has a pair of jogging bottoms with monkey written across the bum, that's our nickname for him, he wears them with a t-shirt with a monkey on it.

Although I would agree that the stuff with "bad to the bone" etc for boys or "babe" for girls is horrible.

My DSs have as little in the way of shoes as we can get away with and I hope I would be the same with a girl, although some of the girl's stuff is really tempting.

DS2 has lots of pale blue as he suits it, mostly from Next, DS1 seems to suit the sludge colours.

Oh good I thought it was only me - ffs I was in M&S the other day and all the little girl's clothes looked more suitable for a prostitute tbh.

I find it very odd that anyone would want to dress their young daughter like this

As for shoes, surely it is up to you how many pairs you buy?

My kids have 3/4 pairs
school shoes
trainers for playing out
smarter shoes/ trainers
winter boots
(plus gym shoes at school)
and DD has 3 different pairs of shoes for dance

Its good to have at least 2 pairs to allow time for them to dry out from sweat in between wears.

I hvae to admit that my dd has inherited my love for shoes and handbags. I have a new bag at the moment which she adores as it jingles and has sequins , the other day we were sat down and she went all solemn and said
"When you are old can I have your bag"