This week, I'm not just doing a Question of the Week. I'm having a giveaway! Thanks to Karen, at The Rocking Pony Etsy store, I am able to offer one commenter a free, handmade Rocking Pony t-shirt!
Wait, you don't know about The Rocking Pony Store? Check out the review I wrote up on my review site to read about how awesome the store is and see some pictures of shirts I own (on my daughter, although they are cropped pics).
Here are the giveaway details:
-Leave a comment answering this week's Question of the Week by August 1, 2010, at 5:00 PM.
-I will have a random drawing for the winner (only one entry per person, not per comment).
-I will announce the winner next Monday on my blog.
-The winner gets to pick a shirt from The Rocking Pony Store for her/his kid.
-If you are the winner, I will ask you to contact me, and I will give your contact information to Karen so she can get your order and mailing information.
This week's Question of the Week is:
How do you encourage your child's development of style?
This summer when we were on vacation at the beach, we stopped by the outlets as we do every year. But this is the first time at the outlets (and the second shopping trip of all) where my daughter was actually able to give opinions on clothes and even pick some out herself. I am extremely excited that she will be able to contribute more as we shop together. But I admit, I'm also a little wary.
You see, I LOVE to pick out her clothes, and my son's too. I love to shop for those cute little outfits that go together, with animals on them and in a variety of colors. Growing up, I spent years learning about style and what goes together and how to coordinate. (I really had to learn, because I think if left to my own natural inclinations, I'd be a bit gaudy. I just love animal print and bright colors. I learned over the years how to tone it down quite a lot, and I actually became really in the know of fashion for a while.)
But it's so much fun to see what the Pumpkin chooses for herself. The pink fluffy ballerina skirt I thought she'd love right off? She took some time adjusting to (of course I bought it anyway). Instead, she immediately picked out a yellow skirt with some ruffles. When I thought she'd love the animals on t-shirts, she instead totally coveted the rainbow on a blue t-shirt.
Almost every morning, I ask her what she wants to wear. She doesn't always pick. But on days when she does, she definitely knows what shirt she wants or if she wants to wear a play dress. Out of all the shirts in her closet that I, Londo and others have bought for her, her favorites are the tie dye Washington DC t-shirt, the Hard Rock Cafe t-shirt, the Scooby-Doo t-shirt and the Petting Farm t-shirt. Not the ballet shoes or flowers or Hello Kitty t-shirts or ruffly shirts with flowers. (She's totally her father's daughter!) At least she loves dresses and skirts, too.
How about you? What do you do to encourage your child(ren)'s style? Do you take him shopping and buy what he picks out? Do you let her pick out what she wants to wear in the morning? And aren't those shirts at The Rocking Pony totally adorable? Leave a comment and you are entered into the random drawing for a free shirt!
Disclaimer: When discussing doing this giveaway with Karen, she offered me a free shirt from her store for each of my kids. Because I love her stuff so much, I am taking her up on the offer. Karen did not know I was planning a review of her store now that I've started writing reviews on my review site again. When I told her, she didn't offer me anything in exchange for the review. My review was in no way influenced by the offer of free shirts in conjunction with this giveaway. I would not be doing this giveaway if I didn't love her and her store so much. I think that covers everything.
12 comments:
I assume both children will be like me (Matthew already shows these inclinations) where as I have about 2 years to have any say what so ever in what they wear and after that.... I was very opinionated about what I would and would not wear, partly fashion and partly physical comfort. For Matthew I am still picking out his clothes, bringing him a stack and asking what he will wear and buying that... every morning he gets two choices on what to wear.... and then typically wears at least part of his pj's any way :) It's a train wreck and I kinda love it :)
For Sofia... I am enjoying these first two years and indulging!
I don't really think about it-I
buy most of my son's clothing online
so he doesn't see it in advance or
get to pick. I DO let him
pick shoes and swimwear though
(why-he has light-up Spiderman sneaks).
I also allow little kid peculiarity
if he wants to go to the store wearing
upside-down sunglasses and a toy
army helmet... so be it.
I don't know that I've tried to influence Tate's sense of style yet except that prior to him having an opinion on what he wore, I'd buy him things I liked to see him in like cargo shorts and polo shirts. Last time we went shoe shopping he picked out a pair of black and white striped adidas soccer shoes and since then will only wear black "soccer shorts" and a black t-shirt (sometime grey shorts and a white shirt but only very rarely if he isn't paying attention) his theory being that his clothes and shoes need to "match" and back matches black. He has literally worn the black on black outfit (including black socks, hello hard to find) for going on over two months now. Adamantly refuses to wear any of the khaki cargo shorts he previously wore or any of the shirts in colors or with characters on them with the exception of a black shirt with a yellow bulldozer on it. (His love of matching is second only to his love of construction equipment.) I have to admit that black plays a very large role in my own wardrobe. :)
(So feel free to leave me out of the drawing - I'd hate for one of those cute shirts to go to waste in the "will not wear" pile.)
this contest is biased towards singletons and i'm suing. Good day to you.
/ just joshing, your smartass SIL here
: ) those shirts are cute. as for style: i don't encourage I at all, because she's already changing her outfits 3 or 4 times a day as it is. she actually has a good eye (matching a color from the floral shirt to the solid skirt, for example) and loves jewelry! Her favorite games on the pc are those you can dress up/ do makeup on the characters.
G.. well, you know has she rolls: jeans, even in august, tshirts. I 'blame' myself for not girling her up early on (first pair of shoes were hiking boots) but maybe that's how she would have sorted out anyway... My encouragement there is more playing the role of brakes: no, you can't file your nails to points.. no you can't dye your hair hot pink, etc.
M: he's a boy's boy. i'm happy if he's wearing pants.. even if it's the same ones going on day 4 ; D
Rosie has had her own sense of style for a long time. Probably since her 2nd birthday, at least. I don't really think I did anything to influence this, in fact I think a lot of it probably started because she didn't want to wear what I told her to wear. She's independent and likes to make her own decisions. I often picked out jeans for her to wear to daycare, because they play outside and get dirty and jeans just simply last longer and don't show the stains. But she wouldn't have it. She wanted to wear "cozy pants" which are basically anything with an elastic waistband. I think it was part power-struggle, part comfort that led to this preference that still exists today. It is HARD to get that kid into jeans.
Now, and for about the past 6-8 months, she has a strong preference for dresses. Every day she wants to wear a dress and she wants to pick out which one. Sometimes I have to say no, if we're doing something where a dress wouldn't be appropriate and/or comfortable (like going to the playground for example).
Anyway to answer the question of how I encourage my child's development of style... well I didn't have to. She's developed it all on her own and really, its not bad. She knows what matches or goes together. She has pretty good taste.
With Annie of course I get to dress her in whatever I want which is fun. :) We'll see if she has the same independent streak as her sister when it comes to clothing and style.
@SIL "i'm happy if he's wearing pants.. even if it's the same ones going on day 4 ; D"
YES!
either no pants/shorts or PANTS in 90+ degree weather... it makes me sweat just observing.
my daughter loves frills and lace...in fact if I let her she would wear a tutu everyday...I am fairly lenient
I let my kids pick out their own outfits every morning, more or less. I may guide them a bit to make sure it's weather/situation appropriate (ie if my husband is taking them to church, I tell them to pick out something dressy).
My older son (6.5) matches his clothes pretty well. My almost 3 yr old picks out his favorite shorts, and his favorite shirt, and they may match or they may not. I don't really care. I am relatively choosy about what I buy them, but once it's in their dressers, they have free rein. I loved dressing them as babies, and I miss putting them in cute little sets, but I also love seeing them express themselves through what they chose to wear.
Hmmm... As you know, little one is still a bit young to be choosing. She doesn't seem to have much care about what she wears-- although she really loves hanging my bras around her neck and parading around the house. (I don't discourage that ;) .)
In the future,I hope to influence her sense of style by discussing how we represent ourselves through clothes. Not necessarily enlightening but I do think it's important to show how clothing can affect our interactions with people and even how we feel about ourselves.
I don't think I want to give her "rights" or "wrongs" but I would like her to see how clothing can be an extension of our identity-- or not. Sometimes it's just plain old utilitarian. :)
By the way, send me some links about "how to dress," I think I could use some help too. :P
I also love picking out my kids' clothes. Noah is the easiest kid to shop for. He likes everything he gets (especially if it is bright) which is great because I can't always take him along seeing he is at kinder all day. But he does choose his own clothes in the morning and like others have said, he loves matching same colours, so we get orange singlets with orange shorts to match his orange bike helmet.
Zoe is pretty happy with most things and tends to choose a lot of her clothes (within reason) when we go shopping, seeing she is still at home with me. She is a bit of a tomboy though. She loves Noah's hand-me-downs, which is great seeing clothes and especially shoes aren't cheap, but she is starting to like more feminine clothes, like skirts with leggings and girly tops. She isn't into jewelery yet either, but then again I'd be surprised if my own tastes didn't rub off on her, and seeing I'm a bit of a tomboy myself.
Z is 3 and is just starting to notice clothes in stores. He spotted a tie-dye polo shirt at Lord and Taylor's last month and asked for it. It was marked down enough that I felt comfortable saying yes!
My Junebug is 3. He has 3 older cousins, and so the vast vast majority of his clothes are hand-me-downs. I have actually purchased only a small number of things for him. like shoes and socks. As far as he is concerned, clothes just appear in his dresser. I let him pick out what he wears on most days. Actually, he insists on picking out what he wears. And he does a pretty good job of it, much better than my husband does. He almost always picks out the shoes that would look the best with the outfit, too. He's got a good eye.
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