Mattsmom277
Active Member
Once again I took easy child shopping and had such a struggle. She is now 12, she's changing from a girls body to a young woman's. She has hips, booty, she's chubby. She is not obese but she is chubby and carries weight in her belly and hips. It is a nightmare to shop for her, and even harder to make it a fun thing without it turning into a experience of frustration for her. Like many moms of young girls, I'm trying to ensure she doesn't start sending herself negative self messages and it's hard when you go to a mall and there's so few stores at her age she can shop at.
She takes women's sizes and I'm STUNNED that she is about 140lbs and 5'4" and extra large women's shirts in most stores do NOT fit her. Well they fit, but TIGHT and not flattering. All of the trendy stores have nothing in stock but those super skinny tops that are really long. Not going to fit her and if they do, they do not fit her shape and are not meant to fit her shape. Jeans and pants are no problem, we can go anywhere, even the trendy shops are no problem for her bottoms. But tops? Forget it. A nightmare!!!!
Thank goodness she travels each August out of town to some great name brand outlet stores down south with her dad to school clothes shop. She gets great Tommy Hilfiger etc things and for good prices and is happy. But she needed some more things.
We did her shoes first and given how into sports she is, shoes don't come cheap. $200 later she had 2 new pairs of shoes (and they were on sale!). Then shopping for tops. ARGH! We hit so many stores and walked in and out within minutes, realizing their whole inventory of tops consisted of the crazy skinny shirts. Honestly, any grown woman at her size of 5'4 and 140lbs should be able to wear anything in any womens clothing store. At least FIT them even if we didn't like the styles.
We ended up in a much older womans store to just find basic tshirts! She hated going in there, but they have TRUE women's size clothing, and I reminded her it was just for basic solid color tshirts so not to worry about what brand they were. She fit a medium there, they fit loose.
Then we found ONE store selling stylish hoodies she can fit, $100 later at Roots for one sweater. I couldnt' say no to her because I KNEW she wasn't going to have luck to buy several items so we settled on the one sweater. While there we also found her a Roots tshirt.
Thank goodness for that trip with her father. Otherwise she'd be wearing nothing but solid basic tshirts only.
I am so sick of this. Sick of a society that has a mall with 100 stores where a 140lb person cannot find clothing but for 2-3 stores. I'm going to have to start shopping online for her maybe. I don't know. I wish we had more options but we're 4 hours drive from a major city (Toronto) where her options are far and wide. We're trapped in hobunkville with horrid shopping. Meanwhile I tried the whole "less is more" spiel today. As in yes you only got the one sweater, but its pricey and high quality so we'll start slow to build a wardrobe with high quality things piece by piece instead of a shopping spree. I think she bought it, but really I just didn't want her going into a single further store where not one top would even be large enough to try on. What on earth would she do if her chest was developed fully? I mean these tops don't just not fit her waist (where she carries most of her weight) but they cling to her chest and she doesn't have much to speak of there yet. So even if she was super slim, these clothes wouldn't fit her past a larger B bra cup size. Maddening!
She takes women's sizes and I'm STUNNED that she is about 140lbs and 5'4" and extra large women's shirts in most stores do NOT fit her. Well they fit, but TIGHT and not flattering. All of the trendy stores have nothing in stock but those super skinny tops that are really long. Not going to fit her and if they do, they do not fit her shape and are not meant to fit her shape. Jeans and pants are no problem, we can go anywhere, even the trendy shops are no problem for her bottoms. But tops? Forget it. A nightmare!!!!
Thank goodness she travels each August out of town to some great name brand outlet stores down south with her dad to school clothes shop. She gets great Tommy Hilfiger etc things and for good prices and is happy. But she needed some more things.
We did her shoes first and given how into sports she is, shoes don't come cheap. $200 later she had 2 new pairs of shoes (and they were on sale!). Then shopping for tops. ARGH! We hit so many stores and walked in and out within minutes, realizing their whole inventory of tops consisted of the crazy skinny shirts. Honestly, any grown woman at her size of 5'4 and 140lbs should be able to wear anything in any womens clothing store. At least FIT them even if we didn't like the styles.
We ended up in a much older womans store to just find basic tshirts! She hated going in there, but they have TRUE women's size clothing, and I reminded her it was just for basic solid color tshirts so not to worry about what brand they were. She fit a medium there, they fit loose.
Then we found ONE store selling stylish hoodies she can fit, $100 later at Roots for one sweater. I couldnt' say no to her because I KNEW she wasn't going to have luck to buy several items so we settled on the one sweater. While there we also found her a Roots tshirt.
Thank goodness for that trip with her father. Otherwise she'd be wearing nothing but solid basic tshirts only.
I am so sick of this. Sick of a society that has a mall with 100 stores where a 140lb person cannot find clothing but for 2-3 stores. I'm going to have to start shopping online for her maybe. I don't know. I wish we had more options but we're 4 hours drive from a major city (Toronto) where her options are far and wide. We're trapped in hobunkville with horrid shopping. Meanwhile I tried the whole "less is more" spiel today. As in yes you only got the one sweater, but its pricey and high quality so we'll start slow to build a wardrobe with high quality things piece by piece instead of a shopping spree. I think she bought it, but really I just didn't want her going into a single further store where not one top would even be large enough to try on. What on earth would she do if her chest was developed fully? I mean these tops don't just not fit her waist (where she carries most of her weight) but they cling to her chest and she doesn't have much to speak of there yet. So even if she was super slim, these clothes wouldn't fit her past a larger B bra cup size. Maddening!