5 ms·

This may come as a shock as I admit the extent of it surprised me as well, but the speed with which children change size soundly outstrips the lifetime of the a

by CPLX 4y ago

This may come as a shock as I admit the extent of it surprised me as well, but the speed with which children change size soundly outstrips the lifetime of the average piece of clothing. And I’ve heard rumors that adults change size quite a bit as well. Sometimes they move from one place to another too.

bigfudge 4y ago
Right, but there tend to be other children who are smaller not far away. It always strikes me as weird how many parents seem to have something against passing on clothes between kids.
- kenned3 4y ago
  I have three kids (two daughters an a son). The boy is the oldest and we would still "hand-me-down" until they became a bit older and didn't want to wear "boys clothes" anymore. With three kids, costs add up and so we would get the boy things the girls could wear as well (future planning). Say he needed new t-shirts and one had a large tractor on it, and the other was just a T-Shirt with nothing on it.. The problem as they age becomes "social norms". To this day, I continue to push both my daughters to try boys jeans. They constantly complain girls pants lack pockets, yet refuse to even try on boys jeans to see if they work? The other issue is some kids REFUSE hand-me-downs and too many parents take the easy road, and buy new clothes? Our youngest had hand-me-downs from both her older brother and older sister and simply didn't care that she was wearing "boys clothes". This really helped our budget.
trgn 4y ago
I know. But I find it actually quite easy to get rid of lightly worn children clothes, and donate them. Mostly informal networks, but a lot of more formal exchanges as well. e.g. also includes car seats, strollers, ... > And I’ve heard rumors that adults change size quite a bit as well. Tell me about it. But I was able to trade my nicer stuff (suits, shirts) no problem. Not the junk.
stormbrew 4y ago
I think this is a thing where "how did people used to dispose of clothes" is one of many tips of a much bigger "the rise of the atomic family reduced our interconnectedness and our ability to share resources" iceberg. People talk about using hand-me-downs but it's become a lot less common to have enough people in your life to get or give things to, outside more formal channels like thrift stores that will only accept certain kinds and qualities of goods (for good reasons). If I had a kid right now I wouldn't really have anyone in my life who could give me outgrown clothes, nor would I have anyone to give them to. My life just isn't built that way and I don't think that's uncommon.
psidebot 4y ago
Children's clothing can get worn pretty hard too. Our stuff is definitely not in donation suitable condition by the time it's too small, although I suppose it might be different if we bought more or more expensive items.
serf 4y ago
children also wear out clothing quicker than adults in my experience, this balances that transition from size to size a bit -- but are you proposing that one throws out their wardrobe when they change locations? That seems incredibly wasteful to me, especially since clothing doesn't really take much packing room unless your wardrobe is huge or fragile -- and if you have a huge & fragile wardrobe then we get back down to the idea that one should live a bit more sparingly to reduce the need for recycling in the first place.
Syonyk 4y ago
> ...but the speed with which children change size soundly outstrips the lifetime of the average piece of clothing. So you swap clothing around to other parents who have younger kids, in exchange from clothing from people with older kids? There's a very solid ecosystem of clothing/shoes/etc moving around our church, and it's quite common to see someone wearing clothes that our kids used to wear, or seeing our kids wearing that was passed down from someone else. There are certain ages/genders that you find a bit of a gap in (a typical 4 year old boy will destroy their pants before outgrowing them), but... stuff goes around in regular loops. "Kitchen trash bags of good condition clothing" regularly go between cars on Sunday morning or at other gatherings. I'm sure there are some people who buy new clothing for their kids at ever size and then discard it when it's worn out, but that's just pissing huge amounts of money down the drain for no benefit in the slightest.
- michaelgrafl 4y ago
  Unfortunately many parents pass on really shrill and tasteless clothes made from cheap synthetic fabric. If you care about esthetics and teaching your children about style and materials, trading clothes becomes much more difficult. Flea markets turned out to be a much better source for fantastic old clothes, but require more time and at least some money. However, with three children who inherit their older siblings clothes, many pieces don't survive the third iteration of wear and tear.
  - anon291 4y ago
    > However, with three children who inherit their older siblings clothes, many pieces don't survive the third iteration of wear and tear. Wow those cheap synthetics passed down among countless generations at church sure look good then.
    - michaelgrafl 4y ago
      You mean they look intact. I'm pretty sure they don't look good.
  - stevekemp 4y ago

by CPLX 4y ago

bigfudge 4y ago

Right, but there tend to be other children who are smaller not far away. It always strikes me as weird how many parents seem to have something against passing on clothes between kids.

kenned3 4y ago
I have three kids (two daughters an a son). The boy is the oldest and we would still "hand-me-down" until they became a bit older and didn't want to wear "boys clothes" anymore. With three kids, costs add up and so we would get the boy things the girls could wear as well (future planning). Say he needed new t-shirts and one had a large tractor on it, and the other was just a T-Shirt with nothing on it.. The problem as they age becomes "social norms". To this day, I continue to push both my daughters to try boys jeans. They constantly complain girls pants lack pockets, yet refuse to even try on boys jeans to see if they work? The other issue is some kids REFUSE hand-me-downs and too many parents take the easy road, and buy new clothes? Our youngest had hand-me-downs from both her older brother and older sister and simply didn't care that she was wearing "boys clothes". This really helped our budget.

trgn 4y ago

I know. But I find it actually quite easy to get rid of lightly worn children clothes, and donate them. Mostly informal networks, but a lot of more formal exchanges as well. e.g. also includes car seats, strollers, ... > And I’ve heard rumors that adults change size quite a bit as well. Tell me about it. But I was able to trade my nicer stuff (suits, shirts) no problem. Not the junk.

stormbrew 4y ago

I think this is a thing where "how did people used to dispose of clothes" is one of many tips of a much bigger "the rise of the atomic family reduced our interconnectedness and our ability to share resources" iceberg. People talk about using hand-me-downs but it's become a lot less common to have enough people in your life to get or give things to, outside more formal channels like thrift stores that will only accept certain kinds and qualities of goods (for good reasons). If I had a kid right now I wouldn't really have anyone in my life who could give me outgrown clothes, nor would I have anyone to give them to. My life just isn't built that way and I don't think that's uncommon.

psidebot 4y ago

Children's clothing can get worn pretty hard too. Our stuff is definitely not in donation suitable condition by the time it's too small, although I suppose it might be different if we bought more or more expensive items.

serf 4y ago

children also wear out clothing quicker than adults in my experience, this balances that transition from size to size a bit -- but are you proposing that one throws out their wardrobe when they change locations? That seems incredibly wasteful to me, especially since clothing doesn't really take much packing room unless your wardrobe is huge or fragile -- and if you have a huge & fragile wardrobe then we get back down to the idea that one should live a bit more sparingly to reduce the need for recycling in the first place.

Syonyk 4y ago

> ...but the speed with which children change size soundly outstrips the lifetime of the average piece of clothing. So you swap clothing around to other parents who have younger kids, in exchange from clothing from people with older kids? There's a very solid ecosystem of clothing/shoes/etc moving around our church, and it's quite common to see someone wearing clothes that our kids used to wear, or seeing our kids wearing that was passed down from someone else. There are certain ages/genders that you find a bit of a gap in (a typical 4 year old boy will destroy their pants before outgrowing them), but... stuff goes around in regular loops. "Kitchen trash bags of good condition clothing" regularly go between cars on Sunday morning or at other gatherings. I'm sure there are some people who buy new clothing for their kids at ever size and then discard it when it's worn out, but that's just pissing huge amounts of money down the drain for no benefit in the slightest.

michaelgrafl 4y ago
Unfortunately many parents pass on really shrill and tasteless clothes made from cheap synthetic fabric. If you care about esthetics and teaching your children about style and materials, trading clothes becomes much more difficult. Flea markets turned out to be a much better source for fantastic old clothes, but require more time and at least some money. However, with three children who inherit their older siblings clothes, many pieces don't survive the third iteration of wear and tear.
- anon291 4y ago
  > However, with three children who inherit their older siblings clothes, many pieces don't survive the third iteration of wear and tear. Wow those cheap synthetics passed down among countless generations at church sure look good then.
  - michaelgrafl 4y ago
    You mean they look intact. I'm pretty sure they don't look good.
- stevekemp 4y ago