People who dress their DCs in the same clothes...

[FaintlyMacabre]

Could you please answer some nosy questions? I only know one person who does this IRL and I don't know her well enough to ask!
When did you start? From the birth of DC2? Or do you wait until they're in 'outfits'?
What if one of them gets dirty- do you change both?
How do you manage to have 2 lots of clean matching clothes every day?
What if one of them grows out of something before the other- does the other one have to stop wearing his/her 'version' of the outfit?
What if they suit different colours?
And what happens when the older one says they don't want to match their little brother/sister anymore. Do you insist?

And finally, erm, why do you do it?

Sorry about all the questions, I've been wondering about this for ages.

[pjmama]

One possible good reason for dressing identical twins the same which has only recently occurred to me, is that it makes you more likely to learn to recognise them by the slight differences in their facial features than relying on who is wearing what that day.

Most kids eventually start asserting their own preferences on what to wear, so in the meantime whatever is easiest for Mum!

[allaboutme]

I have to say though that even though my DCs do not get dressed the same, I always 'co-ordinate' them
They both have a wardrobe or chest of drawers. I do a couple of washes every day so nearly all their clothes are clean and away every day.
When we get up in the mornings I open DS1's wardrobe and pull out an outfit that goes with the weather then wander straight into DS2's room and pull out an outfit again. It would be odd NOT to pick things that go with each other imo.
If I have picked jeans and a hoodie for Ds1 then i pick similar for Ds2.
If I pick cords and a LS t shirt or If I pick a smartish outfit or a really casual one then ditto

Can't imagine putting DS1 in his cords and nice shirt one day and then DS2 in trackies and a T shirt.
They gotta GO together!

[OllieWollieWoo]

I dont understand the logic of changing both DC if only one gets grubby! Is it so they still look the same????

[Runoutofideas]

Often my dd1 (4) chooses to look similar to her sister (2) whom I normally dress first. For example if dd2 has jeans and a spotty t shirt, dd1 will search out her nearest match. We don't often have exactly matching clothes though because most of dd2's have been passed down from dd1 so are 2 years old. We did buy matching outfits for Christmas day - not I hasten to add "novelty outfits" - and they looked lovely.

[RustyBear]

I have occasionally dressed DS & DD (2 years apart) alike, but only for occasions like this when my mum knitted stripey jumpers for my two and their older cousins and we wanted to take a photo to send her. Normally they wore them at different times

[reallywoundup]

i don't get changing the child when its grubby- never mind the matching outfits [slattern]

[CloudDragon]

my bF was a twin and hated being dressed the same as her twin (identical) she found it to mean tha she and her twin where not individuals.

I once put my boys in matching t-shirts as they had been given them. TBH they did look cute!

[millenniumfalcon]

if there's one thing worse than inadvertently dressing my girls the same (i don't buy matching things for them, but obviously i like certain styles of clothes so i often buy things that are similar - or things that proved popular with dd1 i'll buy more of for dd2) is when i realise i've unconsciously dressed myself the same too especially if i can't go home to change

[millenniumfalcon]

one day last week i realised we were all wearing cropped jeans and red tops, i was mortified

[forehead]

I have two daughters aged 5 and 7 and i tend to dress them alike when we are going somewhere special or when we are going to a place where there are many children. This makes it easy to identify them. The funny thing, is that if i had twins i probably wouldn't dress them alike as i would be worried about the fact that they would not be able to develop their own personalities.

[teddymummy]

I have identical twin boys of 3. they were given some matching outfits at birth and sometimes it was nice to put them on because I was so proud of them and they looked so cute! now we do the same t shirt different colour thing. they have lots of plain shorts and jeans the same and then justa different shirt so they co ordinate and look similar but not the ame. they are so identical that they have a colour each- one mainly in green one mainly in blue- it helps everyone! some days they are completely random!

[Flamesparrow]

We did have one freaky day when I was out with Psychomum - 6 children in total (can't remember where we had lost one to), and they were all in outfits of varying denim and beige. I had marched them out of a shop for being hell, and told them to go stand by a wall... they lined up in height order (odd) and looked like this freaky co-ordinated family because their clothing and facial colouring all sort of blended together.

[Takver]

LoL forget dressing siblings the same, when I was small (70s) there was a fad for matching mother & daughter outfits. My mum used to get free 'cut out ready to sow' kits from a friend who worked at a magazine & got all the leftovers, and a lot of them came with identical 6 yo & adult sizes.
Funnily enough, my Mum would never let me match her, I had to wear them on different days . . . (Though she did have a habit of making me matching sunhats to go with all my summer dresses out of the leftover bits.)

[IDreamOfJeannie]

I'm a bit that you all get to choose what your LOs wear every day.

I only have one LO, but I have not been able to pick an outfit for her since she was about 20 months old.

She chooses what she wants to wear most days (within reason!) as she has very strong opinions on her clothes and so I let her (and it's easier than lots of tantrums / meltdowns 1st thing in the morning).

I suppose I don't have to let her choose, but it's really not worth the hassle if I don't.

[notsoteenagemum]

My mum always used to dress me and my sister the same but different eg same top different colour I hated it.
My two sometimes wear the same kind of thing by mistake but I think it's because they both suit the same colours.

[onepieceoflollipop]

I have 2 girls, one 5.5 years and one almost 2. They have a few t-shirts the same (dd1's choice, not mine). They do tend to be fairly co-ordinated, but not identical. e.g. matching pink t-shirts, dd1 in cropped jeans and dd2 in dungarees. I think they look sweet, but if dd1 decided she wanted to be different then that would be fine too.

[WriggleJiggle]

At the park last week there were four children all in identical dresses. They ranged in age from about 2 yrs to 10 years. They were very unusual dresses, not the standard Tesco sort of selection.
I was in awe of the mother's organisation!

[Longtalljosie]

My sister and I had one matching outfit in our lives - a blue and white dress. We loved dressing the same on that occasion, but I really think it was the novelty value. I think I'd have hated to dress identically the entire time...

[troutpout]

a bit odd

[screamingabdab]

When mine were a bit younger, I used to put them in the same colour top when we went out to somewhere that was likely to be busy. This was so that I could round them up easily, and remember what they were wearing in the event of losing one {wink]

They are 2.5 years apart, but have often been mistake for twins

Another thing I have noticed, is that, since I buy most of the clothes for all of us, and my favourite colour is green (suits all of us), many times the whole abdab family has presented to the world looking like Howard and Hilda,

[whistlejacket]

WriggleJiggle - maybe the mum made them out of curtains like the von Trapp family?

[desertgirl]

I remember a friend at primary school (so 70s) with two older sisters - they all had the same 'party dress' which was bright purple with swirly patterns on.

My friend seemed to wear that dress at parties for her entire primary school career, as she moved up through the sizes.

It is virtually the only outfit I remember from primary school; certainly the only outfit that wasn't mine!

[thatsnotmymonster]

I would like to dress my two dd's in matching outfits occasionally cos it's so sweet but I haven't done it yet and they are 3yrs and 15mths.

I certainly wouldn't do it often.

My mum bought ds and dd1 matching gap polo shirts in salmon pink. DS refused to wear his

[Supercherry]

I think it looks quite cute, and when a little boy is dressed the same as his daddy. My brother, when he was little, obviously, used to love dressing the same as dad.

[FaintlyMacabre]

Oh god, just realised that I bought DS a blue check shirt from Tesco because it was quite similar to the sort of thing DH wears. (and he did point at it and say 'Daddy shirt!)'

I too am a matchy Mum, but in the absence of a second child I am using my DH

Thank you matchy parents for explaining it to me. Definitely no judging here, I am in awe of your organisation and laundry skills .