help needed from parents of school kids

I have recently begun buying Sparky's clothes for next year (I buy up clothes in sales and on ebay in advance and put them aside). Poor Scout mostly gets his brother's handmedowns.

When he was born, I asked my eldest cousin, mother of 4, how much clothing I needed to buy for each size and season and she gave me some very helpful guidelines (At the very least for summer and winter, they need enough tops and bottoms to have one on, one in the drawer, one in the wash and one on the line. 4 is essential, 6 plenty. And 2 church outfits. )

But I am thinking that with school uniforms, I will not need to buy as much mufti. And I will need to buy enough uniforms. The question I have, before I overbuy, is how much of each?

I have been thinking 3 uniforms and 3 non-uniforms, plus the usual 2 church outfits. So, parents of school age children please advise - is this a good plan? or are there some factors I need to know about?

what are we teaching our boys about masculinity?

There has been a lot in the media about the sexualisation of little girl's clothing. I haven't really had to deal with this, having boys, but I have had to deal with a related problem with boy clothing.

Boy's fashion, especially after say age 2, is based around a notion of masculinity as rough, tough, aggressive and transgressive. This is a problem when buying for Sparky, as he (and I have no problem with this) doesn't like anything scary looking. This rules out anything piratical, or any but the cutest monsters, or any skull and cross bones. You would be surprised how little this leaves. The other day I was buying him winter Pjs from cotton on, and had terrible difficulty choosing which ones to buy, as almost every pattern broke one of his rules or my rules. You see, I also have rules on his clothing: nothing that makes out he is a little soldier - camo, guns etc. And nothing that makes out he is a rotten difficult child. These 2 categories, added to those Sparky doesn't like - which I have issues with as well for a 3 year old - leave very little. You would be surprised how many slogan tees for boys have a slogan which denigrates the wearer. My sons aren't little brats/monsters/troublemakers - well, mostly not;) - and I certainly don't want to tell them so on their clothing. I don't think it is OK for my boys to be aggressive or social nuisances. I have noticed that very often parents do seem to think aggression in their boys is something to be secretly proud of.

I think this is the other side of the coin of the sexualised girl's fashion. Both trends paint a very narrowly defined idea of gender which I think goes against values you would want to instil in a child of any gender. What happened to the clothing I remember as a child? it seemed to be more kid like and less genderised. I pity the mums of girls stuck with the pink and more pink.

So, anyway, Sparky wears a lot of stripes, checks and plain clothing. Which is nice and tasteful anyway. The picture, by the way, is of the lovely kid's fashion by seed - which seems to avoid a lot of the issues I am talking about.

Clothes- bargains

Well, my last fashion post took off in an unexpected direction – I was just amusing myself really, but it seemed to be a starting point for readers to share where they got good bargains – so look here is a post to do that! Please respond with your own good ideas. Here is what I have found:

Kids clothes:
Cotton on kids have regular sales (almost continually! I just stop in everytime I’m near one) which are much reduced (I often find tops for $5 on sale there which are pretty good quality – they seem to hold up pretty well). They are a plainer style than say pumpkin patch, but I like that. Really comfy pjs too. For stores see: http://www.cottonon.com.au/stores.php?kids_state=NSW.

Ebay – I buy a lot of Sparky’s clothes through ebay – I find that buying the more expensive brands second hand works well, as often people saved these for good and they are hardly worn. Particularly found great bargains on 100% wool jumpers for some reason, pehraps because people buy sloppy joes - but I just love knits on kids. You can buy bulk lots too and save on postage – good for play clothes. If you are worried about ebay, I can give some of my tips for using it....

Sales generally. I love it that they are still too young to care about choosing clothes really, so I can buy clothes a year ahead in the sales and put them aside.

My clothes
Outlets such as DFO - are good for things year round on sale (thanks Prue for mentioning this one in your comment – I use it too!) .

I’m signed up to the websites of my fave brands (witchery, kookai, cue, country road to name a few) so that I get informed when a sale is happening. Also, being on these lists often means they send you special offers or vouchers. And signing to these lists is free. You might not share my tastes, but check out your faves online and register for them. For example, I’m not a Colorado wearer usually, but many of you are – if you want you can sign up at http://www.colorado.com.au/home/default.asp#/home .

Partially because I was pregnant last summer, and 2 summers before that was carrying post baby weight, I have hardly any summer clothes – and t-shirts seem to be particularly rare in my wardrobe – but my lifestyle demands lots of tees! I have discovered 2 online places to get tees that I am thinking of trying out (I have bought one as a gift so far!). They aren’t rock bottom prices, but good prices for good quality.

Threadless tees – this is an interesting site where people compete to get their design or slogan on a tee – they choose a few every week based on votes and print limited editions (I am addicted to scoring designs). So these tees don’t look like ones you get just anywhere. Designs vary from witty to beautiful. But they don’t cost too much – I got one for a gift for $25 (which included shipping from US, I think even cheaper if buy multiple). If you prefer plain, the women’s ones for threadless are printed on tees by American Apparel (aussie website for this American company is http://store.americanapparel.com.au/ - cost per tee around $30). According to reputation the fabric they use is wonderful quality – and my sister-in-law backs this up. They have tonnes of different styles all available in a much wider selection of colours than in the shops.

* the picture is a threadless tee I want reprinted -called sailing the high trees.

So - what about you? what are your bargain hunting secrets?