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.

[Tommy]

I do this when we are going out somewhere special like a wedding because I think it looks smart and cute. It's not difficult to do and doesn't require extra work IMO! If one spills something and needs to change then it doesn't matter.

I also try to out them in the same tops when we are going out to a big country park or soemthing so I can spot them more easily.

If I am shopping and see something nice in all three sizes, then I buy it but I don't necessarily go looking for it.

[tiredoftherain]

I'd never do it deliberately but the ds' are both dressed in navy and white striped tops, red t shirts and navy shorts today. It's more to do with the mood I'm in than me trying to get them to look the same. Often I've got the same colours on myself, I wouldn't mind cat64's dd laughing at us at all!

[frogs]

As long as you don't try this, you might be okay.

This is not a good look either.

Godalmighty, there's loads of it about.

Fnar

[cupcakesinthesnow]

I have 2 ds's 23 months apart in age. I, personally never choose to dress then identically. When I had ds2 my mother seemed to think I should I often buy 2 items the same as they have the same taste (they are 7 and 9)but will generally try and get a different colour although as they are virtually the same size they wear eactothers clothes anyway.

They do have a ridiculous number of the Boden printed board shorts in all colours and patterns so for today for example they are both wearing a similiar patterned shirt (the hawiian) but in different colours and different coloured tops.

The beach is the place where they are most likely to end up wearing the same shorts and rash vests but its not really intentional - however it does make spotting them easier as I don;t have to think 'right, there is DS2 but what is DS1 wearing today?'

[Marne]

I only dress mine the same if we are going out somewhere busy as its easier to remember what they are wearing if one goes missing , they have a couple tops which are the same design but a different colour (as one likes blue and one likes pink) but they don't really wear them at the same time.

[gagamama]

I have two DSes and I will admit to buying them the same clothes. If something is nice, good value, good quality etc why would I only buy it for one of them and start the hunt all over again to get something else equally suitable for the second one?! Sometimes if something is available in more than one colour I'll get one of each, but chances are I'll prefer one colour to the other and how do I decide which DS gets the nicer one? It's so much easier to just get two the same!

I don't intentionally dress them the same, but it does happen quite a lot. If one is wearing jeans, the other will wear jeans - not to be matchy but because jeans are suitable for the weather/activities of that day! Ditto jumpers, etc.

[crokky]

I have a DS (3.4) and a DD (1.4). They have a set of matching pjs, DS thinks it is really funny and dances around laughing when they are both wearing them.

The way I dress my kids is - they have a drawer full of trousers each (all pull on, fairly unisex) and a drawer full of tops each (again, all pull on, all fairly unisex). I just grab a top and bottom for each child every day. If DD runs low on clothes, I just put DS's clothes on her and vice versa! I hand anything that DS hasn't worn out down to DD as well. I think children look nice in matching clothes, I haven't got anything matching other than pjs at the moment, but if I liked something that would go on a girl and a boy, I would get it.

[JentlyDoesIt]

Hmmm,

I have DS (2.9) and DD (15 months) whilst I obvioulsy don't dress them too much the same, they do have a few matching neutral coloured jumpers/cardis made by my aunty which I think looks cute

However, if I dress DD and DS in even remotely similar clothes ie jeans and tops or even jeans for DS and a denim pinafore dress for DD, its amazing how many comments of "oh lovely, twins!" and when I point out the age difference I get "oh well, nice to have 2 boys isn't it?!"

[mummyloveslucy]

I have a friend with two daughters who are now 8.5 and 9. They have always been dresseed exactly the same, even down to hairstyles and matching silvercross coach built dolls prams. There clothes were always very expencive hand smocked dresses,traditional wool coats etc. They always looked gorgeous. They have only just stopped wearing identical clothes.
Their Mum has her own buiseness and is very buisy, not sure how she does it but they have always been immaculate.
If it was me, I'd probubly do it occasionally, but it does seem more effort and you can't pass the clothes down.

[benandoli]

My boys are 3 and 6 and they like to dress the same. Having said that sometimes i do sometimes i don't depends how organised i am that day and also ds2 does get hand me downs (which he loves) so then they are dressed differently. I do have a friend who always dresses her 2 the same and I wait with interest to see what happens as they get older as they have quite different personalities and i cant see the eldest putting up with it for much longer. I do wonder what the little one will wear whilst the eldest is at school in September, I mean surely that with throw the whole system out!

[Tamilla01]

Possibly for twins but there are four years between my girls. Although the youngest does wear the eldest hand me downs a lot of them just wouldnt suit her as she is a red head and my eldest a brunette.

I am a big believer in letting personalities shine through even in dress sense but I can appreciate with twins this probably isnt always practical especially financially

xx

[twinmam]

Don't dress my non-identical twin DDs the same although we have been given lots of matching outfits in the past - I just rotate them. I do tend to match the type of outfit though, ie both in trousers or both dresses or whatever. Dressing girl twins in different outfits causes major confusion to strangers who always assume one must be a boy as they're not dressed 'as twins'

[Dawnus]

I think it's a bit weird! I'm neither for or against, but I just don't get it!!

Twins for example....is it not easier to buy different outfits so that either one of them can wear it?? Rather than 2 exactly the same...I don't understand the financial aspect of having the same 2 outfits?

As for older and younger siblings, why dress them the same?

[slummymummy36]

Why is matching outfits so weird??

I have never really thought much about it before.

I have 2 girls 10 and 8. They over the years have had the odd matching outfit but purely because I have seen something I like and its a bargain so I get 2. If they both have it on, on the same day so be it! I cant be arsed with asking them to change etc. It rarely happens now! Think my 10yo may object LOL! If they were wearing matching outfits an one got dirty then change just the dirty one, although unless the kids are wet or uncomfy I usually leave them in dirty clothes until the end of the day - aren't kids that actually play supposed to get dirty???

Alot of my kids clothes come from mini Boden where there is a range of clothes in a limited number of prints and fabrics.

Even at 10 and 8, last week on holiday my eldest had on a pair of pedal pushers in the same fabric as her 8yo sisters Skort! I didnt even realise until I was taking a photo and some oldie commented on how they matched! Even though one had a white Gap tee shirt on and the other had a pink tee shirt on!

I once conciously bought them matching Laura Ashley (years ago,when they did kids clothes) matching summer dresses for a family wedding. I did it partly because I was sick of shopping for dresses with 2 under 5's and didnt want any arguments! It was easier to buy 2 dresses the same and 2 cardigans the same and 2 pairs of shoes to match the dress the same than faff around buying all the accessories seperately with 2 kis in tow! All the shopping was donw within 1 hour and I went home a sane mum with happy kids! The photos from that day were lovely and I still have one on display. Everyone comments how lovely they look in it, but then after reading this,maybe they are being sarcastic and think I am some obsessive freako.

I think there is a difference bewtween having the odd matching outfit and living like it every day and ridiculous to change both kids when only one has a dirty outfit! With twins so what, its kind of expected although makes life easier for others if they are dressed differently!

[fabhead]

My ds's are 4 and 2 and I have a few outfits that are the same but are different colours if you see what I mean and I purposefully dress them in them together about once a week or so, usually if we are going out somewher as, yes, I think it is cute. Rest of the time they wear whatever. They have the odd identical things too.

Odd really as when we were children my sister and I ALWAYS had the same outfits but hers were blue and mine were red which really annoyed me as I liked blue better!

[BionicEar]

This is one of my pet peeve! Absolutely HATE siblings being dressed alike. Have swore never to do this to my children. Only exception would be school uniform and if they were being bridemaids/pageboys at wedding.

My Mum used to dress my younger sister and I in same outfits when we were younger and I hated it, cos people would always assume that we were twins. As the eldest by 4yrs that always used to bug me that people thought I was same age as my younger sister.

My Mum also had strange obession of dressing more than one of my siblings in same outfits so sometimes we looked like the Von Trapp family off the Sound of Music!

Nope you'll never find any children of mine dressed alike, no matter how "cute" it looks!

[ginnny]

I do this sometimes
I think they look cute and they like to look the same
ds2 "mummy now we look like brothers",
me "you are brothers
ds2 "yeah well now we LOOK like brothers too!"

[ermintrude13]

My mum had a friend with identical twin girls whom she'd always dressed differently from birth. But as soon as they were old enough, they'd run upstairs together and swap as much of each outfit as they could so they'd be wearing non-matching tops and bottoms, odd socks, 1 red and 1 blue shoe, even hairslides etc. so they'd look like mirror images... . She gave up struggling against it and they dressed the same until they hit adolescence.

[GinGirl]

For a special occasion such as a family wedding I might dress DD1 and unborn DC2 in the same (though only if DC2 turns out a DD obviously). There wil be 2 yrs between them and I think it can look adorable.

My mum used to do it for safety reasons. At one time she had 5 chidren under 10 so if we were off out for the day somewhere busy, the zoo for example, we would all be dressed in yellow. The 3 girls in summer dresses and boys in same colour t-shirts. She said the bright colour made us easier to spot and count!

[2anddone]

I have just come home from holiday and there was a family of 3 girls there (am guessing 3,5 and 9) all wore the same all day every day and even in the pool! I heard the oldest have a row wth her mum in the pool changing room because she had put a red swimsuit in and her mum was saying no you must wear this one like your sisters

[QuintessentialShadow]

Oh my boys (7 and 4) are so vain....

I cant chose, I can merely suggest. But they usually end up fairly co-ordinated. They dont have the same clothes, but like another poster said, one choses a hooded jumper, the ther does. They looked really cute this summer, both in brown capris, and orange jumpers. Not identical, but similar design. Or their black shorts and turqoise t shirt. Again, not identical at all, but same colour match. But they dont always do it.

Then, they scrutinize their hair infront of the mirror. The 7 year old has straight hair, and uses gel to shape the fringe upwards and sideways. The 4 year old has curly (short) hair, and wants his fringe downwards. They are so lovely.

[margotandjerry]

I don't like. I often see a certain pair of twins , in their early twenties walking round, always dressed identically down to the smallest hairclip - spooky.

[roundwindow]

I am stuck in a twee trap! I've always secretly loved the idea of dressing them the same but am aware of how unfair on them it might be to indulge my never-quite-grew-out-of-playing-with-dolls side. And there's the issue about letting them forge their own identities, etc. So have tried my hardest to step away when the urge to buy two of something I'm buying for one of them overtakes me.

So imagine my secret delight horror at DS1's (5) slightly asbergic and passionately enforced insistance for the past few months that he and his 2 yr old brother wear the same colour top every day! He honestly really does insist. He just about accepts that they don't make school uniforms small enough for DS2 but at weekends and on holidays he melts down if we don't comply!

I do fear others' judgements though because I've already been slightly twee in my choice of names (they're very cool but sort of 'match'). I'm the twee-est mummy in town!

Oh well.

btw, has anyone mentioned Jamie and Jules Oliver's kids? I think they've been matching in every single picture I've ever seen. Truly Cath Kidston, twee-tastic! I'll go now.

[Astrid28]

I haven't read the whole post, but this week there was a lost little boy in the local market, so he stayed with another woman where he was found, while I went to look for his mother who he said he had lost.

There was an old woman stood at the other end of the market place with a little boy who had the same t-shirt on - I asked if she's lost a little boy and she had - he was actually out with his Nan & brother. I would never have noticed her if the boys hadn't been wearing the same tops!

I remember thinking that maybe there is some good to dressing them the same after all! Althouh I hated it when I was younger!