Does anyone have opinions on kids sweaters or sweatshirts with the best cost to durability?HM seems good for sweaters but not sweatshirts… George seems gross. Those are the only two brands of kid sweaters or sweatshirts I’ve bought. The rest have been gifts but 5-6 seems to be missing in my free and used collection.
For me: good but cheap wide legged pants, drawstring or elastic preferred to zips. Uniqlo looks nice but suddenly (in 6 years) they have gone from $30 pants to $60 pants
ETA the George ones were all gifts. Possibly I have gone almost 5 years only having bought a single HM sweater.
We’ve had good luck with Target’s Cat & Jack brand. Sweatshirts on sale are $8-10 US and I’ve gotten 2nd & 3rd round hand-me-downs with no holes. I think it’s mostly stains that take these out of rotation so picking darker colors or bright patterns probably helps.
If you want super durable, Primary and Hanna Anderson are both having sales right now for sweatshirts around $20 US. Primary’s regular prices are almost bearable, HA pretty steep.
Kids 5 is tricky bc it’s the upper end of toddler sizing. Sometimes stuff hides as Youth XS.
Eeek Hanna Anderson has gorgeous things but $68 for a sale hoodie . I can see why google suggested hatley instead.
I have a cart loaded with Mountain Warehouse sweatshirts (and a long sleeve merino top for each kid) to consider. Including if I buy B1 a unicorn sweatshirt. I am trying to balance getting him his heart’s desires while delaying someone crushing something he loves. I’m definitely hearing things and seeing looks. (And I can pass it down to a cousin if B2 doesn’t want it)
My purple-obsessed, long haired, elfin child who likes male pronouns but is non-binary has been like this forever. I’m familiar with your situation.
Partly he doesn’t notice social cues so the subtle reactions go over his head.
Partly he thinks it’s hilarious to be misgendered.
Partly kids and young adults these days are much better than they were in previous decades.
My friend suffered life altering brain damage from a gay bashing incident at a punk show in 1998. I’m terrified for my child’s safety. Plus his more mundane day to day emotional safety. But I’m learning that this fear is mine, not his. Most people indifferent, some are kind. The ones that matter to him are kind.
My kid trusts the world more than I do and so far it’s worked out. I’m sure one day something bad will happen, but at this point the volume of good has built a strong foundation of confidence in the kid.
This isn’t advice. Your context and kid are different. Just my experience.
LB seems pretty chill about this (so far as far as I can tell he is straight and cis but he has such soft features). The Boy was chattng with someone at the train station who correctly assess our children as “two boys and a girl”… but had swapped LB and the cuckoo (short haired and dressed in boy’s cargo shorts at that time).
@ElleP, no advice but virtual empathy! What a tough call. It’s at least a little easier when they are old enough to understand the implications but for the little ones, you just want them to feel joy but then you have to worry someone will stomp on it.
And those comments can come from anywhere! I was really taken aback last Christmas when I said, “I don’t know if you noticed [LB]'s nails…” on my way to some other point, and my sister said, “We ALL noticed.” WTF?
I am such a hypocrite on nails. His younger cousins have worn polish from birth and I told him no…. But after his paternal grandma did his too I let it be their bonding thing. I haven’t even bought hippie nail polish for them. If he was a girl I’d be standing my ground.
We are in this space too. I’m always happy to learn more about how other people I respect are navigating it.
I’ve always provided a even mixture of clothing choices (gendered in both directions and gender neutral). Pipsqueak hops back and forth between styles but has a short bob with bangs and is gendered very differently depending on the outfit. She’s also all over the place with pronoun preference and whether she wants me to correct people who get it wrong or not. (Lately we’re back to she/her most of the time).
We have recently joined a school community with more visible variety in gender representation. And spending time with a non-binary adolescent over the summer was really good for Pipsqueak too.
But she told me yesterday she’s sad when people mis-gender her and she also doesn’t want to use her voice to tell them. So…it’s a hard space. I haven’t explicitly said that her clothing choices are causing the misgendering but maybe I should? Previously we’ve stuck with boys and girls and non-binary people can choose to wear their clothes and hair in whatever way feels most comfortable to them. Ugh.
We’re at this place with our 5 year old as well. Short pixie cut and hand me downs from her brother. She tends to wear dresses and headbands the day after anyone tells her she looks like a boy, but usually she does whatever she wants
Our kids have both turned out to be pretty sensitive to what other people think about their choices, unfortunately. Our older kid used to love unicorns and painted nails. He’s refused to wear unicorns or “girl colors” since he heard some girls in kindergarten talking about him, and he always considers whether or not people will make fun of him if he wears an unusual hat / fun clothes. I’m so sad about it.
My parents are pretty conservative, and they asked once if the “girly” things he likes were a reaction to having a baby sister who was getting all the attention, haha. I was like “no, sparkles are just awesome, let him paint his nails!” Seeing other adult men wearing bright coral and purple clothes, and having my husband paint his nails with us, has made him a little more comfortable with his choices, but he’s still scared of sticking out too much.
I agree, it’s so hard. I would say absolutely buy the unicorn sweatshirt, if they want it. Maybe someone will say something mean, but that’s better than your kid feeling like you’re the one who doesn’t want them to wear it.
I’ve been leaning towards yes because everything is on sale. But I have about $200 of stuff in the cart and want G to glance at it/discuss if there are bills coming up I haven’t accounted for. So it’s in the cart but said low stock. The universe will decide!
I’d say B1’s biggest reaction to realizing someone is being mean (when he realizes) is complete heartbreak. But he’s also pretty susceptible to being taught a rule and following it. So we’ve laid the groundwork of everything is for everyone but in the past some cultures thought…. Still could be overruled by assertive kids.
Also he will want to wear it everyday which is unhygienic.
Our coffee pot is nearly dead. It’s been a great coffee pot for many years but now needs to be replaced. What are your recommendations for a drip coffee pot? We don’t need a single serve option(we have a Nespresso). If it has a grinder that would be nice but not for sure needed.
I’m asking for a butter dish and funny tshirts so far. Basically this time of year I quit buying any little things I need like the butter dish and put them on my list instead. The tshirts are left over from last year, but that’s okay because I still want them.
For Black Friday I’m keeping an eye out for a new mattress pad (cheaper than a new mattress and our mattress is fine, other mattresses are not better from what I’ve found) and new kitchen towels. I don’t know if kitchen towels ever go on sale, though, or if there’s a particular time of year (like storage stuff all goes on sale right after Christmas) but I just want plain white ones to replace my formerly-white-now-greyish ones. Not very exciting stuff, lol.
we are getting my niece who is heading out to university some slipper socks. and my BIL will be receiving Lego.
we are making a list of things that will be replaced when we do the renovation. bedding, mattress, shower curtain, shower curtain rod, silicon mats for baking, brooms, rain coats.
I should also plan to get more picture frames for when the renovation is over. we have a bunch of art that isn’t on walls because it isn’t framed. I might also look into doing some high def printing of some of my bird photos.
eta: we might replace the binoculars from my dad that were broken
I have my list started . Largely because I try to stop buying anything for myself in the fall. And also to store my future buys.
Air filter - for current machine or ikea machine plus spare filters.
The brick - phone use tool heavily advertised on instagram
Fancy pyjamas - tricky because I want nice fancy ones that fit 7090 requirements.
Mabel’s labels - will probably buy this week instead
Books
Paint top of bathroom
Continue to budget for my medication
Jeans
For kids
Water bottles (if we trudge along without buying) and mittens
New dressers - either G finishes making them (spring project, and theirs have fallen apart ) or the IKEA ones I suggested in the first place.
Trampoline or spinny chair
. I can see why google suggested hatley instead.
I usually need a pair or two of work socks, and they’ve got fun patterns.
) or the IKEA ones I suggested in the first place.