Dressing Boys

It’s astounding how many people go round calling children by ‘she’ when the child’s a boy even once they’re at toddler age.

I can understand it more when they’re babies in unisex wear, and to a certain extent even if they’re in outfits, as you may not be able to tell if the baby is in blue…unlikely to be a baby girl given the amount of pink clothes available versus other colours for girls.  Unless of course, the baby girl is in hand-me-downs from an older brother.

But toddlers, even when their hair isn’t cut in a specific style to give a clue, do still generally look either boyish or girlish.  And throw in clothes…even with girls in trousers, it’s likely you could make a pretty good guess in 99% of occasions and be correct.   Or so you’d think.  I’ve heard quite a lot of friends saying their child is still being referred to as a child of the opposite sex.

It seems to be more so boys being mistaken as girls.  I’m presuming it’s because they might not have cropped short hair;  the mistaken observer must be only looking at hair and not the face or clothes for clues (or maybe they’re just plain ignorant. and should think and just call them something unisex if they’re not sure).  Ok, so I’ve walked down the road behind a child with long hair and what could be unisex clothes – jeans, hoodie of some kind, converse canvas shoes and wondered, then they’ve turned round and I’ve still been not quite sure – pretty boy or tomboy girl…but you just don’t go round talking to them or their parents referring to them one or the other just in case you’re wrong.

When he was a baby, N was referred to as a girl on one occasion in the supermarket.  At the time he was dressed in a brown hoodie and navy bottoms with no floral enhancements or anything that could be misconstrued as female oriented, but the woman in question must have just not really thought before speaking.  We’ve not had similar mistakes made since though.  He does have a very boyish cropped hair cut, and wears very boyish styled clothes as well. so I think you’d probably have to be blind to mistake him for a girl.

I love boys clothes.  Ok, so sometimes I look at pretty girls dresses and think aren’t they pretty, wouldn’t it have been nice to have had a girl to put in dresses.  But then reality hits and I remember that the chances are, if I’d had a daughter, she’d have been like me and a total tomboy when it came to clothes, living in jeans and sweatshirts (not much has changed, I still live in jeans outside work!).

Yes, boys clothes are a bit predictable – trousers, t-shirt, jumper.  But now there’s chinos, cargos, jeans, trousers, long sleeve, short sleeve, pullovers, hoodies, fleeces, jackets, jumpers, the list goes on.  And I’m quite conservative in clothing, so if you fancy something a bit more way out for your sons, I’m sure there’s lots more choice.

Luckily I’m a big fan of blue – in fact, put all our clothes on the washing line and there’s an awful lot of blue.  But I also like N in browns, beiges and red.  He’s also got a bit of random green and orange thrown in – not great, but good for a bit of variety.  I do love all the chino/cord alternative colours – although I’m still not quite sure about the bright turquoise slim fit chinos I ordered in an online sale.  They’re a lot brighter than the colour they’d named or pictured them as, but with a navy or grey t-shirt they’ll probably be quite nice.

For styles, we tend towards t-shirts, or rugby shirt styles in winter, as they’re so much less hassle than button up shirts.

Today, I did a quick whizz round the supermarket in my lunch break, and being half term Sainsbury’s had their 25% of Tu sale.  I always like Sainsbury’s clothes for boys although hadn’t been impressed with much of their summer wear for N’s age this season.  They’ve obviously had more range in as today I stocked up on t-shirts for him – mostly next size up as his current wardrobe has plenty of t-shirts in for this summer.  At least with t-shirts, they can be layered up and worn in winter so it’s not a problem keeping them for a year’s time.  Although given that we tend to find some t-shirts come up short after a few washes, he might be in the age 3-4 sooner rather than later.

new clothes
New clothes…for a year’s time!

I am loving the bicycle shirt especially – hopefully N will too.

I got a great haul for a great price, plus I had a Nectar double points coupon.  The only downside will be that we always see lots of other children wearing the same thing because everyone likes the Sainsbury’s clothes.

We do have a christening to go to in a few weeks though, so I’ll have to dig some smarter clothes out of his wardrobe.  Thankfully he’ll be able to get away with some smart natural coloured chino type trousers with his ‘party’ shirt or a smart jumper if the weather hasn’t warmed up by then.  The OH’ll be fine in his one and only suit, it’ll just be my outfit I need to think about.

What do you like to dress your toddlers in? Do they insist on choosing their own clothes?  And what’s your favourite shop for children’s wear?

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