Younger son needs clothing size my older son is wearing

6coop

Mon, Apr 12 2010, 11:30 pm

I have two boys who are 3 1/2 years apart. My older son is very short, and my younger one is on the taller side of average. They are usually one size apart which worked out great because as soon as my older son was finished with his clothes, it would go right to my younger son. It's now at a stage where my younger son needs to move up a size, but those things are still fitting my older one. A few problems:
1. I don't want to spend extra money to buy a double wardrobe in one size.
2. I don't want my older son to be any more self-conscious than he already is about his height, by having to wear the same size as his younger brother.
3. The next size up is still too big for my older son and I don't want him to have to wear things that are flopping off of him (although that might not bother him, it just doesn't look good).

I'm not sure what to do to maintain a balance.
Ideas?

Mimisinger

Mon, Apr 12 2010, 11:46 pm

What's the question? Both kids need to wear clothes that fit. I would get different clothes for the second so they don't have to share, and try to buy cheap.

But other than that, there's only so much you can do.

mamommommy

Mon, Apr 12 2010, 11:48 pm

Hmmm...a clothing dilemma. Decide which is worse...your son's self-esteem possibly suffering from having to wear the same size as his little brother, or you having to deal with him wearing clothes that are still too big on him. Anyway, you may just be delaying an issue that will come around eventually - that your younger son will grow taller than your older son and have to wear bigger clothing than he does!

momsprince

Tue, Apr 13 2010, 12:18 am

Reminds me of my younger years. My sis is 3 years younger than me and wore one size smaller than me for as long as I can remember. It never really bothered me but possibly cuz I'm a girl.

RachelEve14

Tue, Apr 13 2010, 1:11 am

My three older girls are all about a size apart. They pick from teh same wardrobe. Some things fit all 3, some fit only 1 or 2. Your younger ds needs clothes that fit, so either buy him new ones or let them pick from the same clothes.

Isramom8

Tue, Apr 13 2010, 6:12 am

If you choose to dress them both in the same size, designate particular clothes for each boy. And remove the labels that state the size.

Inspired

Tue, Apr 13 2010, 6:40 am

Mimisinger wrote:

Thats about it.
I have 2 boys who wear the same size. Yeah, "I" have double wardrobe in a few sizes.
Stop thinking of the clothes as your set of size x clothes and start thinking of them as "Reuvain"'s and "Shimon"'s clothes. The kids are people too and should have clothes that are theirs, not just clothes they are using temporarily until someone else can use them. IME anyway you are pretty lucky if you get to pass down a lot of stuff with boys of certain ages.

EvenI

Tue, Apr 13 2010, 6:41 am

You might have to forego item 1. Or, if until now you had a lot of clothes per season for each boy, you could see if it makes sense to cut down on the number per child and do laundry more often. In any case, I wouldn't make either of them wear clothes that don't fit them.

smilethere

Tue, Apr 13 2010, 7:52 am

My 1 year old and 2 1/2 year old wear the same size. I have a double wardrobe.

MamaBear

Tue, Apr 13 2010, 8:06 am

My boys wear most of the same size. They're 2 yrs apart but the younger one is 90% for height and weight and the older one is 15%, so that means they're about the same. At at certain point, when you hit the big boy clothing area, at least the tops are sized as xsml, sm, med, lg. Obviously 4-5 sizes are meant to fit more than 5 ages, kwim? It's just reality that unlike when kids are 4 and under, where their age often correlates t their clothing size (sz 18-24, for example, for the same age range), it's just not the same as they grow up. A size small can fit a 5 yr old or an 8 yr old.

You can even label their clothes if you intend to keep them separate so as a prev. poster said, they can view that as belonging to one child or the other rather than being a certain size. My kids, ages 6 and 4, don't care that some of their clothes go back and forth. Maybe it's a boy thing? They don't care about clothes.

Rodent

Tue, Apr 13 2010, 8:40 am

Get one of them (or both half) new clothes. If you must remove the size labels. It may be a pain but they need to be comfortable whether you like it or not.

Personally I'd love this problem. My first 2 boys are under 13 months apart so I was hoping to have them share a size at one point but #1 is very tall and #2 average so won't be happening. Now hoping that #3 (19 months younger than #2) is taller and catches up! I'd rather deal with fewer clothing sizes, sharing, mixing and matching etc, awesome!

6coop

Tue, Apr 13 2010, 9:52 am

Thanks for your responses. I guess you're right that I'll have to buy a double wardrobe. It'll be hard to get different things for each boy because they have a dress code for school and there's a very limited repertoire of what I can buy for them. Their clothes look mostly the same now anyway!.. Oh well.

Chayalle

Tue, Apr 13 2010, 10:36 am

I have never managed to benefit from the hand-me-down wardrobes.

My oldest is very very petite (shortest 6th grader from a grade of close to 200.) Oh well. My next DD is 3 years younger and about the same size as my older one (she's a drop shorter but also a bit plumper so that makes up for it. Funny - she's also petite but my older one is VERY petite.)

When they were younger I used to match them but I don't anymore. They each have their own clothes. My older one, understandably, does not want to wear what the 3rd graders are wearing, or even the 2nd graders. Plus I make an extra effort to buy her very nice, a drop more upscale (but as much on sale as possible - I'm on a tight budget!) clothes so that she feels more mature. She's a size 7 in 6th grade! She can't look like she's seven!

And it didn't pay to save my clothes from my 9 year old for my 2 year old. Clothes don't last that long in storage - they stain, stretch, etc...so I just give everything away and buy new. I do my best to shop the sales, buy at the end of the season for next year, etc...

On top of that, I'm grateful to be spending money on my children's clothes. I had several years where my $$ went trying to have them.

Liba

Tue, Apr 13 2010, 11:19 am

My two oldest girls wore the same size for a long time, not my second wears a larger size than my oldest. We never made a big deal about it and they never seemed to have an issue with it. Everyone wears what fits them, the numbers don't mean much.

Mommy3.5

Tue, Apr 13 2010, 8:52 pm

6coop wrote:

I really think you have put to much emphasis on size and self esteem. I am the oldest of 7 and the shortest. It didn't bother me growing up nor now. When my sibling remarked about my shortness growing up, I shot back a comment about their freakish largeness.

It was all in good fun, My younger brothers call me their little big sister. Your son needs to learn sometime that there will always be someone who is taller/smarter/better looking/ more personable. Its better if he learns it now. If you dwell on your height, others will too. You need to make up for it in other ways, like personality and oodles of self comfort. People tell me all the time when I say I'm only X height, that they always see me as much taller, because of my disposition ect.

I also have two boys that wear the same size....they do not even realize it. At one point the younger one had bigger feet, now its the older that has a slight advantage, It goes back and forth. I label clothing labels with the first name initial, so they do not end up sharing clothes. The school has a dress code, but I still manage to get them things that are different. Neither one has a complex.

Also by always letting son2 have hand me downs, its not great for his self esteem either.While is great to save money when you can, its very important that each child should feel special, and new clothes go a long way to making them feel that way. Don't build your older sons self esteem on the back of the younger one.

lizard8

Tue, Apr 13 2010, 9:39 pm

Just last week, my 13 yr old brother complained he suddenly grew out of his clothing. We gave him the 19 yr old brothers pants to try, and they fit! I guess in this situation it was worse for the 13 yr old because he just started growing!

Twizzlers

Tue, Apr 13 2010, 9:45 pm

I sell to this woman who has twin boys and a son a year younger all 3 of whom are the same size. she buys stuff by the dozens, lol. but seriously, you gotta do what ya gotta do...especially if they all have to wear the same stuff for school anyway, whats the big deal if they all share?

6coop

Tue, Apr 13 2010, 10:04 pm

Mommy3.5 wrote:

6coop wrote:

There are a couple of key differences between your situations and my son's. First of all, height means something completely different to boys than it does to girls. Second of all, my older son is VERY self-conscious about his height (he gets picked on in school) and also keenly aware that his younger brother is quickly catching up to him. Also, my kids sort and put away their own laundry, so he will 100% know if he is in the same size as his little brother.
I also don't see what's wrong with hand-me-downs. Obviously the younger one will get a few new items to replace ones that are too worn out, but other than that, it's all old stuff. My younger one doesn't care or even notice. I grew up getting my older sister's hand-me-down and I just knew that that was how it was done in our house and it did not impact on my self-esteem!

I like others suggestions of cutting out the size labels from the clothes and getting the kids completely separate wardrobes (I'll probably color-code it so they can know whose clothing is whose since all of the clothes are so similar.) Thanks for the ideas and opinions.

flowerpower

Tue, Apr 13 2010, 10:07 pm

Dd and her sister are over two years apart and wear the same size sometimes. The boys also wear the same size shirts and are not the same age. Don't make a thing out of it and he won't either hopefully.

estibesty

Tue, Apr 13 2010, 10:35 pm

such fun now you can match them so cute