My Child's Individual Sense of Style

It's back to school time and I'm sure there are many moms breathing a sigh of relief.  I remember the excitement of back to school shopping between supplies and clothing and that was always the highlight of the festivities.  I have always enjoyed buying clothes for school for as long as I can remember and love doing it for my girls.  My girls have always been picky with their sense of style and fashion starting with my oldest who dressed as a tom boy to my very youngest who is a diva.  They have so much variety in personal taste that it's really hard to figure out what to get them unless they are with me.

Watching my oldest go from wearing big bulky clothing to grunge and then finally to the teen type fashion that is the norm today was an adjustment on my part.  I was okay with boyish look as she was playing soccer and it made sense.  I wasn't too crazy about people thinking she was a boy from time to time but then she progressed with her fashion sense.  She later fell into a pattern at school of wearing the black outfits with chains which I was not happy about.  Something about having a little hoodlum looking girl run around was not my ideal of fashion.  She was a hard one to buy for back then other than knowing she would wear black, chains and black finger nail polish.  Luckily, that phase didn't last long and then came the "in-fashion" stage.

This was the phase of maybe showing a bit more than I liked because she had the figure that makes a dad buy a shotgun to keep the boys away.  I was even more pleased that it was a short lived phase.  She then moved to age appropriate clothes that were fashionable yet respectful.  I wanted her to wear appropriate clothing sense I have very impressionable younger daughters at home.  My two younger girls keep me busy as they are on opposite ends of the fashion pole.  One is a princess and I know I'll be able keep her up to date with the latest fashion trends and boy, I can't wait!  The eight year old is into skater looks with the crop shorts and capris and t-shirts.  Nothing girly about her unless she's dressing up as Taylor Swift and then she will wear a dress.

My girls' fashion styles are individual as each other.  It's nice that they have differences in their preferences as that shows they have individuality which I like.  I want them to have their own sense of fashion.  One thing I also like is having one store where I can buy all their clothes to save time and money.  A sense of fashion should be determined by the child and not the media.  All in all, it's fun watching them grow and making decisions.


I wrote this blog post while participating in the SocialMoms and jcpenney blogging program, for a gift card worth $50. For more information on how you can participate, click here.