When do kids start to dislike hand-me-downs?

My twins are only 3.5, but we get nearly all their clothes as hand-me-downs from older cousins & friends. I just stuck a huge box of size 6 clothes in the garage -- the biggest size we've gotten so far.

As a child, I remember some point at which I decided I was embarrassed to wear other people's clothes, and wanted new. It was probably not as young as 5-6, but sometime in elementary school. Have your kids hit this point, and if so, when?

I'm not saying I'm going to quit accepting hand-me-downs -- I'm enormously grateful, and we couldn't afford to buy them nearly this kind of wardrobe (my SIL has a serious Hanna Andersson fetish ) if we bought it new. But I ought to be prepared to budget for some new clothes for them at some point.

 

My 11 year old daughter is still happy to get hand me downs from her cousin.

 

QUOTE(Julie @ May 24 2009, 02:41 PM) [snapback]1326490[/snapback]
My 11 year old daughter is still happy to get hand me downs from her cousin.

Mine too! Justin, my 12 year old, also does not mind. Now, some of their friends would die if they were made to wear hand me downs, so I think it's all in the personality of the kid, and also maybe how you yourself approach it when they are younger.

 

I agree, it's personality. My girls mostly wear indirect hand-me-downs (thrift shops). The are 6.5. Heck, I'm almost 41 and I'd rather have a hand-me-down than have to go shopping. DH's niece, however, would die before she would put a baby in hand-me-downs.

 

My oldest girls are 10 and still love getting new-to-them clothing. I hope they never dislike getting them. I still get things from friends and they see how much I appreciate them so hopefully they will follow my lead

 

I got them from my cousin growing up....I to this day have Zero problem with it. I buy alot of my little guys stuff second hand from the Twin Mom sales!

 

My girls 14 and 12 love thrift shopping. Even though the clothes are used they know they can get good stuff. Also they find the labels that I can not get alot of, so more bang for their buck.

Hopefully this will never change and they will be happy getting second hand stuff until they are on their own. None of my kids mind, and actually prefer the used stuff because it is not stiff and usually broken in. For the younger ones its a comfort thing as well.

 

My niece (now 23 and about to get married) never outgrew it! When she was 13 and her brother was 11, I took them shopping with me and told them I'd give them each a dollar for every year of age. He got a water gun and some other toys new, but she went to Goodwill with me and got designer jeans, NEW shoes, and a skirt and top that matched. My SIL had always taught them that you get more if you don't buy new, and she definitely learned that lesson well!

 

None of my kids have ever had a problem with it. Which is good, because we buy most all of their clothes at thrift shops and garage sales. I think if they did have a problem with it they would just have to deal . . .

 

None of my boys care, at all, where their clothes come from. Boys, though, are harder on clothes so we get and give far fewer hand me downs then when they were smaller. My almost 8 year old trashes his clothes because he plays so hard! I really don't mind, as I know he's not doing it to be destructive, but every pair of pants he owns have holes in the knees! I think a lot of older boys are like this and so we buy most of their clothes new. They also don't really have anyone to give them clothing right now, anyway.

 

I think it depends on the hand me downs too. When I was elementary/jr high age I hated wearing hand me downs - Mostly because they were 10 years out of date by the time they went through all my cousins and got to me. There weren't really any resale stores around where I lived either and my family couldn't afford new. I think I got 2 new dresses a year. It gets really old when you are constantly teased for wearing clothes 10 years out of date.

My kids do wear hand me downs, but are allowed to decide what they like and don't like out of the bag. Cassie loves her cousin's hand me downs. Of course the cousin in question is only three years older and her mom loves to shop.

Ethan wears big brother's hand me downs, but we always make sure to get him a couple of new things - his taste in clothes is much different than Zach's.

 

I agree that it depends on what it is. My oldest (finishing 6th grade now) doesn't care at all where the clothes came from. She has preferences for the types of clothes she likes so some things passed to us will be passed on again without being worn. The little ones don't care at all. We also rarely by new and shop consignment sales/Goodwill for clothes. There are seven and a half years between Megan and Kayci. I'm saving some of the things Megan outgrows for Kayci if they are classic/basic styles or things I really like and hope are still in style when Kayci can use them. I also agree that the adult's attitude about it can effect how the child feels about it. It's the norm for us, even as the parents we use second hand things when possible, so I'm guessing it will be the same for the kids as they grow up.

 

QUOTE(Minette @ May 24 2009, 04:58 PM) [snapback]1326432[/snapback]
I'm not saying I'm going to quit accepting hand-me-downs -- I'm enormously grateful, and we couldn't afford to buy them nearly this kind of wardrobe (my SIL has a serious Hanna Andersson fetish ) if we bought it new. But I ought to be prepared to budget for some new clothes for them at some point.


Not all kids go through that--I didn't. I think being able to pick the clothes themselvs is an enormous issue, not where they picked them from. We had a neighbor who always let us in on her garage sales the night before. like you SIL she bought the most expensive clothes for her daughter who was 3 years older than me. I never ever minded wearing them, not even in jr. high. I think the fact this girl didn't go to my school might of helped, so like no one ever said to me--ha ha you're wearing Healther's old dress. But also it wasn't like I just got a box of her old clothes and I had to wear them, I got to go there and pick which things of hers we were going to buy. I was raised to be a bargin hunter--my parents are antiquers and plan vacations around flea markets--and I never went through a phase when I was embarressed to wear hand-me-downs. It also helped that there was a clear difference in the quality of those second hand clothes over what was on the racks at K-mart.

Right now I buy almost all of my girls clothes at flea markets, I enjoy the hunt, I hope my daughter learn to enjoy that too.

 

QUOTE(Julie @ May 24 2009, 06:41 PM) [snapback]1326490[/snapback]
My 11 year old daughter is still happy to get hand me downs from her cousin.

Mine, too. I also have a tiny SIL who gives my DD gorgeous things. She just got 3 bags of clothes from her this week and is in heaven. But her hand me downs are nicer/more expensive than new things we buy.

I don't remember ever disliking hand me downs, as long as they were decent clothes. I might be embarrassed if I had to wear them to school with the person who gave them to me, but other than that if they're not totally out of fashion, no one needs to even know they were given by someone else.

 

Mine still don't care. I really think it depends on the child. It was only last week that Sierra finally mentioned that she wants to pick her clothes everyday and then she forgot about it the next day anyway. My girls also just started caring about what color they wear a few months ago. Clothes are kind of secondary to them.

I had quite a few hand-me-downs as a kid and I loved them. They came from my older cousin who was my idol though so I thought anything I got from her was awesome. :lol:

 

one of mine has never wanted to wear hand me downs, or even half of the new clothes he would insist he had to have (as a result i've stopped buying him stuff he doesn't absolutely need & he has to deal with the fact that his brother still gets things because he will wear them). he will however wear stuff of mine that is gender neutral now since it fits him at 7 & he is very proud to wear it because it shows how "big" he is (i am quite petite). the other one is a size smaller than his brother & will happily wear the things his brother outgrows & i think he always will because he realizes that if he does when it's time to buy new clothes he will have twice as many clothes & he loves clothes! he actually goes shopping with me for my clothes, it's so much fun! i've always left the choice up to them- you can have x number of new pants & that's all you have or you can have these pairs or almost new ones & x number of new pants & have twice as much. they decide on their own & then have to accept their decisions.