Buying Clothes for Children

When I first started shopping for children's clothes, I must admit I got it all wrong! I was so impressed with the colors and prints that I didn't always pay attention to the quality. Needless to say, I was stuck with some cheaply made item that was already losing its color after the first wash, full of lint balls by the second, and the paint on the poor design was peeling off!

As much as we want to save money as mothers, we must consider quality above all things especially when you know you will be passing on clothing between children. I found that when I bought something on sale for my oldest, I would end up giving the item to the youngest and unfortunately the outfit didn't look nearly as nice as it did when the eldest wore it. When the children get older, they begin to pay attention and that's when they start making comments like, "I'm not wearing that...I don't like it!" I think they remember too how nice the outfit once looked. Would you wear someone's old ugly hand-me-downs?

Over the years I began to closely watch some of the brand names that did last the test of time and I could be able to pass down to the next child without thinking to myself, "I really have to get rid of this!" Here is the list of the brand name childrens clothes I came up with which are worth checking out: Carters, The Childrens Place, Disney, Fruit of the Loom, Levis, Sesame Street, Polo and Gap. Amazon has many of them and they usually have a nice variety of children's clothes. I have learned the hard way choose quality over price! Sometimes I may find some quality items at yard sales, but it takes patience to look over an item to be sure it isn't stained, tattered or smelly.

Now I am not claiming that all children's items made by the brands mentioned previously are top-notch, because it all depends on what you are buying. I personally stay away from any design that is painted or glued on. I also avoid those cotton fabrics that are lint collectors. You may know what I mean, like the two-piece lint collector jogging pants on sale at Walmart for less than $10. The inexpensive cotton fabric the shirt and pants are made of looks like something you would see in a drug store aisle. However, what I do like at Walmart is the boys polo type shirts made by Faded Glory, Levis jeans, and underwear items by Hanes.

So many shirts, bottoms, jackets, outfits and pjs to choose from when shopping for clothes for boys. I have toddlers, tweens and soon-to-be-tweens (four total) so I am often looking for a good sale both on and offline.

It seems that anything I seriously need for the boys I can find for good prices without sacrificing quality. Take for instance, one day I decided to put the best department names in search engines along with what I was looking for and I ended up finding sales on select items with free shipping. Using comparison shopping sites, one can be specific as to his or her children's needs and put in the search engine style, brand name and price.

Now in order to find a really good deal on something like pull-overs, hoodies and jackets, you will need to go beyond comparison sites. I visited many websites directly and on each site I selected the option to search within my price range, size and add any other detail where applicable.

While visiting the children's clothing websites, I viewed the clearance section first before browsing around elsewhere on the site. I also checked for coupon codes for things like free shipping and buy one, get one offers. If I couldn't find any offers on the site, I searched outside of the site using search engines like Yahoo, Bling and Google. I bookmarked those sites so I I could return later. Things that I like but are not definite on making a purchase, I add to my shopping cart anyway to save time.

I have found some great items online at a fraction of the prices I saw offline and I got a better selection. My sons aren't carbon copies of their classmates whose parents shop locally.

I personally found some great items for baby sleepwear at the following links and I enjoy surfing for toys, athletic wear and other children's items at these sites too.

I have a niece and she has a wonderful wardrobe! That's why it can be difficult for anyone buying for her to come up with the right outfit. From brand names to pretty dresses with florals and prints, she has a little bit of everything and not everything is inexpensive! She has also become very particular about the kind of items she so desires too as she grows older.

This past summer she requested that she get a dress with spaghetti straps and an opening for her back to show! I thought this was a bit much considering she was no more than 6 years! I told her that I would leave that up to her mother. Her grandmother did most of her school shopping that year and the outfits she picked out were absolutely adorable. All clothes were age appropriate. There was a nice mix of solid cotton shirts with skirts, dresses, pants and jeans. She stayed away from cartoon and other television themes considering that the child's taste in TV programming changes from one day to the next. Not only that, most of the items cost dollars more because they are favorites.

I chose to add hair accessories to her wardrobe like hairbands and fasteners. I also included a few toys, I mean what's a wardrobe without a few toys? My niece didn't complain about any of her items. I think its because we did the following: we all took the time to ask her what she wanted, we watched her reaction to certain items before we bought them and we also paid close attention to the items that were already bought by her parents. I think when shopping for a little girl, you must be careful what you are picking out. There are far too many cute outfits that mimic the adult ones. From mini-skirts to low cut blouses, these items are definitely not the kind of things you want your sweetheart wearing unless you want to incite the wrong kind of attention.

Happy Shopping!

Always know where your children are