When they grow out of clothes they love

Amy & Sarah each have a pair of shoes that they LOVE but are on the verge of growing out of. Amy also surprised me today by requesting to wear a light fleece jacket that hasn't been out of the closet for months (since winter started), but she apparently remembers and is very attached to. She wore it all day and even for nap! But it, also, is on the verge of being too small.

I know this is just a fact of life and we're just going to have to deal with it, but just wondering if anyone had a suggestion for how to make it go down a little easier. Do you tell them that it's time to give the clothes to a younger child? Or do you just "disappear" them and hope the kids forget? Or let them keep wearing the things until they simply can't fit into them anymore, even if they look silly?

 

Well you could do what Ellen Barr did and feverishly search ebay to find and replace them time and time again!

Or you can take them when they are sleeping and "hide" them, praying that whole "out of sight, out of mind" concept holds true! That has worked for us so far with a pair of favorite sandals and sweat pants.

 

I tell them that it's too small. They'll continue to wear it a little but I've talked them into "giving the small things to a little baby" (which means putting it up with the other too small clothes) when it passes the point of being a little snug... at least it's worked so far.

 

I also tell my son it is too small. He'd seems to be okay with the explanation. I also find similar items to replace it with. For example, he loves rockets and spaceships and one pair of are warm, fuzzy, jammies that he wanted to wear in June so I found some lighter jammies with a rocket on it that he was fine wearing. HTH!

 

Bea has a pair of red Mary Janes that she loves but are too small. I put them away in the utility room, and she didn't seem to notice, but then started asking for them. I told her they are too small, and it will hurt her feet if she wears them, and she seemed to accept that. Ainsley loves hats, and one hat she is really attached to is now too small. I let her (and Bea, can't just buy one hat) pick out new hats online and told them that they will be coming in the mail. Yes, I'm teaching my children how to shop online! This was good in that I could show them only certain hats and make sure they were weather appropriate, not too goofy, and kind of coordinated. Now Ainsley's other hat she loves, my mother found on Ebay in a bigger size. The other hat I was replacing did not come any larger.

 

I tell them it's to small and that it's time to get rid of them. But I am lucky that they have a younger niece and I say we need to give it to Morgan since it doesn't fit any more. They do get a little upset but they get over it. If the clothes are stained or not good to pass on I have them throw it in the garbage so they know it won't be coming back.

 

:laughing: When you put it that way, Kate, I sound like a complete weirdo!

I have a couple extra drawers under their closet: one for clothes that are too small (to give away) and one for clothes we've been given or purchased that are bigger than what they are currently wearing. Now that my boys have moved beyond wearing the same outfit every day, I tell them that the (shirt) is too small, but let's look in the "next size up" drawer and see if there's something to replace it with. Then I ask them to put the outgrown shirt in the give-away drawer. Later I can decide whether it gets saved as a memento, given away or tossed. Anyway, this process seems to help with the letting go (which they have trouble with).

 

I love the Ellen Barr way! That sounds like me! :lol:

I tell the boys they are too small for them. I let them try it on again to show them it hurts or pulls wrong to wear. But they can let one of their stuffed animals or Power Rangers wear them. We give them to monkeys, Barney or whoever they fit. Then, when we decide to give away that toy, that article of clothing goes with it...

 

I'm also blessed with a niece 18 months younger.
As it starts to get too small I start prepping them. This is getting too small for you. It will be time to give it to Marisol (their cousin) soon. That seems to really help. They've even started saying, "This is for Marisol." now when things get too tight. There was one hooded tweety bird sweatshirt that I have to SIL and when the girls were at her house, Gabby claimed it as hers, SIL told her to take it home and it's still in our drawer.

 

Funny you should bring this up. I decided to consult Ellen shortly after Xmas when Joe became instantly attached and demanded to wear a Thomas sweatshirt every....single...day.

I had my mother go to her local Kohls and I went to mine and we both bought 'back ups" so I wouldn't be doing laundry every day.

Fast forward one month. It turns out that his fascination is actually with POCKETS (the sweatshirt had pockets). While the Thomas is still his favorite pocketed item to wear, I do have some freedom.

As far as convincing them to 'let go' of outgrown items, the boys have a 5-month old cousin that gets all our stuff. So we tell them it's time to give that to "Baby Ben" and they get excited about it. Everytime they see Ben in Joe's old infant carrier they get excited because they recognize it (they were still in them at 13m).

I also do the 'buy a season ahead' thing often (and I think you get hand-me-downs from older cousins) so while I haven't employed it yet, Ellen's "shirt-for-a-shirt" theory is a worthwhile one.

Bow down to Ellen. :bow2:

 

OK, I was leaning towards the "explain that it's too small" approach, and that seems to be the one that works best for most of you too. We do have baby cousins (as well as older cousins), so I will just tell them it's time to give stuff to the babies. They know that they get bags of clothes from their older cousins, so hopefully this will seem reasonable to them.

We also saw some friends this weekend who have a 10-month-old that we gave some hand-me-downs to. The baby emerged from her diaper change wearing a pair of PJs that Amy & Sarah were wearing only last month. (Yes, she's a big baby!) I was a little worried that they'd have a fit, but they just seemed entertained that the baby was wearing "jamas" at all.

This morning Amy wanted to wear her fleece hat from last winter (6-12 month size -- just barely goes on her head). I said "It's almost too small -- it will be time to give it to your cousins soon!" She did wear it today, though.