Shopping for new school clothes is an important annual ritual for both parents and children, one that can easily turn sour with unreasonable expectations, overspending, and arguments. If you want this year's shopping trip to be harmonious and successful, you should do a little homework ahead of time and formulate a plan that both you and your fashion-conscious child can agree on.
Heidi Staedler is the owner of Burbank California's Smarty Pants, a unique children's clothing boutique for moms and dads who love beautiful and fun designer kids clothes but who hate paying designer prices. Staedler searches the wholesale children's marketplace for overstocks, liquidations, and discontinued high quality clothing and sells it at Smarty Pants for up to 80% off of retail. Here she offers expert tips for school clothes shopping with your kids:
- Inventory the closet.
Before you go shopping for back-to-school clothes, do an inventory of your child's closet. Make sure that your child likes to wear everything in there, and that all the items fit properly.
- Stick to a shopping plan.
Have a plan. Sit down with your child, discuss the sorts of clothes he or she wants and needs, and make a shopping list. When you're in the stores, stick to the list so that your child won't get distracted.
- Buy the basics.
Most of the time, you'll want to stick to the basics. Buying items that are classic and comfortable might let your child get a second season out of them. Buying only trendy pieces, on the other hand, might ensure that you'll be back at the stores as soon as the fashions change.
- Decide what's appropriate for you child.
Talk to your child about what you consider age appropriate wear. Look at catalogs or magazines together, and discuss what you think that a child of his or her age should be wearing. This way, you won't have different shopping expectations, and you might just avoid some big battles in the store.
- Make shopping fun!
And lastly, try to keep the shopping experience fun for both you and the child. A trip filled with clothing conflicts could lead to an unhappy first day at school for your kid.
For more information about back to school clothes and supplies, check out the following organizations or websites:
BET.com: Back-to-School Shopping: Tips for Parents
www.bet.com/articles
All Things Frugal: Back to School Clothes Shopping
www.allthingsfrugal.com/b_school
Kansas State University: Reduce Stress of Back-to-School Shopping
www.oznet.ksu.edu/news
Dependable Cleaners: School Shopping Tips
www.dependablecleaners.com
Family Corner: Back to School Wardrobes for Less
www.thefamilycorner.com/family/frugal/backtoschool
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