Our Kids Hate the Mall. We Must be Doing Something Right.

[LiveLean]

My wife has noticed that many of the rising eight-grade boys our older son's age have become fashion conscious, wearing name brands, etc. I'm okay with our guy -- and his rising sixth-grade brother -- living in run-of-the-mill (clean) jeans and an array of T-shirts mostly from their swim team and various surf shop and race freebies. We also tend to get hand-me-downs from a neighbor with three boys.

Today I volunteered to take them back to school clothes shopping - a first in our family. Within 15 minutes, they were cranky and wanted to leave, saying they had plenty of clothes. So we came home empty handed. My wife and I reminded ourselves that we grew up on Sears and JC Penney. We sure as hell don't need to be going to Hollister, Abercrombie, H&M, etc.

Our guys are year-round competitor swimmers. Our 13-year-old, who has hit puberty, is absolutely jacked. As I told me wife, he can wear anything at this point and look great.

So no back-to-school shopping for us.

[sandandsun]

Same here, even with a girl, age 11! (not sure how long that will last?)
Only exception is shoes- nike, under armour, etc.- but I am fine with that as it is the only thing they really express any preference about :)

[Miss Piggy]

Only exception is shoes- nike, under armour, etc.- but I am fine with that as it is the only thing they really express any preference about :)

Holy buckets! My husband has VERY small feet, so we shop for his shoes in the boys section. I cannot BELIEEEEEEEEVE how expensive kids sneakers are these days. $80 on sale????  What the bleepity bleep?

[marty998]

Try $150 on sale down here.... The brand mark ups are insane.

[MakeSmarterDecisions]

My kids are the same way! It's like pulling teeth to get them into a store to buy clothes! They go when they NEED to - to get a bunch of things at once, but they never WANT to go!  Chalk one up for mom!  And as far as sneakers go - it gets better when there feet stop growing for sure!!

[LiveLean]

I buy $30 adidas for myself at Costco. The problem is that they start at size 9. Our 13-year-old is at 7 1/2. I can't wait until his feet grow a little more.

[MayDay]

My oldest is only 8. I bought him new sneakers this spring, he wore them for a month before summer, and has worn sandals since.

He pulled on the sneakers this morning- too small! Luckily he doesn't care about shoes or clothes yet, I bought him a pair of 30$ converse and called it good.

I'll pass down the barely worn sneakers to little sis. The thing is, it's unpredictable. Last pair of sneakers he wore for over a year and beat them to hell and back. They were expensive Keens and paid for themselves by lasting that long. So I go buy another expensive pair, and he outgrew them. Oh well!

[I'm a red panda]

Only exception is shoes- nike, under armour, etc.- but I am fine with that as it is the only thing they really express any preference about :)

Holy buckets! My husband has VERY small feet, so we shop for his shoes in the boys section. I cannot BELIEEEEEEEEVE how expensive kids sneakers are these days. $80 on sale????  What the bleepity bleep?

This is the one thing I've noticed costs more. I wear mostly girls shoes and they all cost less than adult shoes, except tennis shoes. It's ridiculous