Heather Campbell (aka, Princess Mommy) is a red-headed work-at-home mom of three under 4 who lives in the St. Louis metro area. She also blogs at Magical Chaos and Mumbling Mommy. Meet the whole AmateurParenting.com team on our About page. This contribution is a guest post from blogger, Katie P. Look forward to more from Katie in future posts.
On a recent Sunday, I was filling up the kitchen sink with soapy water to wash the dinner dishes when I noticed something troubling: four of the six members of our family were still wearing pajamas. From the night before. I?m not sure what the other two members of the family were wearing because they hadn?t been at our house since the previous morning. I?m not sure which was more troubling. The fact that we were in pajamas at 7 p.m. or that I had not noticed until that moment.
It had been ?one of those weeks.? My husband was sick. My baby was teething. I had more work than usual. My stepkids had stayed a day longer than usual, which is always nice, but means more mouths to feed and children to corral. By the time Sunday arrived, I was wiped. And not a normal weekend exhaustion. Complete zombie mode.
The fact that we were all wearing clothing that actually belonged to us was really quite a miracle. I tried not to feel bad about our obvious lack of productivity that day. I tried not to feel bad about the fact that a perfectly beautiful Florida day had been spent inside. I reminded myself that we are normally very hard-working, efficient folks and one all-day pajama party was not going to be the end of us.
It got me thinking a little bit more about our clothes and what they say about us as a combined family. I know moms of little ones get a ?pass? on being fashionable and that their little ones (particularly multiple ones) do not always need to look magazine-photo-shoot ready. Still, I try to keep us all as put together as possible. This doesn?t mean my kids (or I) wear the nicest, trendiest or most expensive apparel. We have a hodgepodge of new things and hand-me-downs but at the very least I try to keep us clean and wrinkle-free.
Sometimes this whole clothing-on-their-back thing is out of my control though. My stepson grows freakishly fast. At this rate, he is going to be 8 feet tall by the 3rd grade. His mother buys him his school clothes but I often look at him (as we are walking out the door for school) and his ankles are visible below his track pants.
?Are those your new pants?? I ask, incredulous that they are already too small.
?Yeah? why?? he asks, oblivious.
He also has long-ish wavy hair and strangers often mistake him for a girl from a distance. My husband loves his long hair. My son?s classmates think it?s ?cool.? We live in a surfing community, where it is not uncommon to see barefoot dads on skateboards picking up their kids from the elementary school. So his hair gets a pass, even when it drives me nuts because I can?t see his face. I figure if I?m the only person in the world (besides his mother) who wants to cut it, it can stay. For now.
A positive to him growing so quickly is that his sister, my almost-four-year-old stepdaughter, loves to wear her brother?s old (new) clothes. In fact, she is the only one of the kids that takes the initiative to pick out her own clothing without my prompting. She usually brings me one of my son?s outgrown pairs of track pants or basketball shorts, along with an androgynous shirt with a character from Sesame Street or Angry Birds on the front of it. If I try to put her in anything made for a girl, she complains. I once tried to put an orange Hawaiian-print sundress over her head and she told me simply that she did not want to wear a ?princess dress.?
Her hair is a gorgeous mop of curls, but with the boy clothing underneath, she is often mistaken for a little fella. Which doesn?t seem to bother her. So my husband and I don?t let it bother us. We talk to her about her girl parts and she acknowledges that she IS one ? she just likes boy clothing. I?m not sure how we will handle her wardrobe when she starts preschool in the fall, but I?m guessing it will not include anything pink or containing ruffles.
Then there is my oldest biological daughter. Once she is dressed in the morning, often in an actual dress, she stands in front of our full-length mirror and declares that she looks ?awesome? or ?beautiful.? She really does and she?s only five, so I?m not going to declare her a narcissist just yet. I paint her nails when she asks and she recently got her ears pierced with pink studs. I?m slowly building up her Kindergarten wardrobe with sundresses from Tea and Hello Kitty apparel. I want her to feel comfortable in her own skin when she starts school, which means a decent amount of pink. And ruffles. Oh, and sparkles.
My one-year-old daughter just wears whatever people have given us. Generally, she wears ?little girl? clothing. Occasionally I?ve dressed her in a green dinosaur onesie, or elephant pajamas in shades of blue and she still looks adorable. Babies are lucky that way. She has literally 10 bins of clothing waiting for her as she grows containing hand-me-downs from her older sisters and some friends. I will still buy her some new things too, but she will be able to pick her own style from a variety of options.
My husband looks hot in plaid or basketball shorts and a T-shirt. When he dresses up for work (in a sports department at a newspaper), he wears a long-sleeve Nike shirt or pull-over and dark jeans. Still looks hot. Men are lucky that way.
When I buy a new article of clothing, 99 percent of the time it is a sundress ? either a short one or a maxi. I can get away with wearing them year-round and they dress me up just enough to make it look like I care without actually trying. I?m not quite as girly-girl as my daughter, but I do like to wear dresses and skirts. It makes me feel feminine and slightly pretty, even if I?ve been up all night with a coughing kid.
I?m interested to see how our family style takes shape in the coming years. I wonder what my kids will be wearing as teenagers (we will have FOUR teens at once) and how that style will shape or influence their personalities. Maybe I can even borrow a thing or two of my daughters? now and then, if they aren?t too mortified.
How does your family dress, and do you think it accurately reflects your personality as a unit?
Katie Parsons is a freelance writer who lives with her four children, husband and the sound of the ocean nearby. Katie created Mumbling Mommy, a community blog with contributions from parents internationally. She is writing?a memoir?about the time when she was single and pregnant, and she also owns a?content creation company.?You can contact Katie by commenting here or?emailing her at katie@mumblingmommy.com.
Heather Campbell (aka, Princess Mommy) is a red-headed work-at-home mom of three under 4 who lives in the St. Louis metro area. She also blogs at Magical Chaos and Mumbling Mommy. Meet the whole AmateurParenting.com team on our About page. Source: http://amateurparenting.com/2013/06/does-clothing-make-the-family/
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