So you’ve decided that you’re sick of your kids wearing the dumbest clothes imaginable.
You now understand that it’s important for them to wear clothes that encourage some sense of normal aesthetic sensibility. You have disentangled yourself from the pajama-pant slop, neon-Croc ideology of 2025 and want to dress your kids well from this point on.
Do you know how many people sell entire ‘lots’ of kids’ clothes on eBay? It will blow your mind. Five kids’ Oxford shirts for 15 bucks.
But you are worried about the cost. You are afraid of them wrecking every shirt you buy. Their grubby fingers at dinner. The stains. The mud outside. The mess. Markers. Paint.
Balling on a budget
“How can I afford to buy them nice clothes if all they are going to do is wreck them?”
This is what stops lots of parents. They like the idea of their kids dressing well, but the practicality of it stands in their way. They give up before they even start because they think it is impossible to do without wasting tons of money replacing perpetually stained shirts that need to remain perfect if they are going to be worn at all.
So is it impossible? Are they right to give up? Do you need a fortune to dress your kids decently?
No, no, and no. But you’ve got to change your mindset first.
Redefining ‘nice’ clothes
If you are used to dressing your kids in pajama pants, you most likely think that chinos and any shirt with a collar are clothes to be worn only when “dressing up.” In your mind, these are not clothes for daily wear. They are for holiday dinners, family reunions, weddings, religious services, and basically anything “formal.”
These are the clothes that you tell your kids to be careful with so that they don’t wreck them. You don’t want them playing on the playground in them. You don’t want them playing in the grass in them. You don’t want them spilling something on them.
These are their “nice clothes.” And they have to remain nice. You and your kids are perpetually freaked out about keeping them nice.
You’ve got to change this mindset.
These are no longer their nice clothes. They are no longer the clothes that you freak out about. These are just their clothes. It’s what they wear on a daily basis. Their T-shirts are gone. Their pajama pants are gone. The floor has been raised, and now button-ups and polo shirts are what the kids wear every day.
You can’t police them in hopes that they keep these clothes perfectly clean. They need to live just as naturally in these nicer clothes as they did in their pajama pants before. This means they are going to get stained, ripped, messed up, screwed up, and beat up. Accept that. This is now normal. Make peace.
Bargains galore
Next: the money. I know that’s still bothering you. You might have changed your mindset, but you don’t know how you are going to afford this. “These clothes cost too much; I can’t afford to buy my kids a bunch of button-ups.”
This is where you are wrong. These clothes don’t have to be expensive. You just need to get a little creative.
Don’t buy the polo when it is $14.99. Buy five of them when they are on sale for $3.99. Yes, those deals happen.
Go to Goodwill and thrift stores. You can find so many plain polo shirts at Goodwill for just a few dollars. And because parents think of them as “nice shirts,” they will often be lightly used if not practically new.
Look on eBay. Do you know how many people sell entire “lots” of kids’ clothes on eBay? It will blow your mind. Five kids’ Oxford shirts for 15 bucks. Three wool sweaters from the ’80s in practically perfect condition for $10 plus $4.99 in shipping.
These are nice clothes, but they are not expensive clothes. These are affordable. You just have to plan a little more. Yeah, you aren’t swinging by Target and throwing 10 stupid T-shirts in your cart on the way home, but who cares? That shouldn’t be the standard. All it takes is a little more effort, and you can easily dress your kids well on a budget.
Stains happen
There are tactical hacks that can help. Instead of light khaki chinos, go for navy chinos. You can’t see that big splat of chili on a pair of navy chinos. The grass stains don’t really show up, either. A 5-year-old can play outside in the dusty dirt all afternoon, and navy chinos won’t show any of it.
Buy slightly darker plaids instead of lighter-colored shirts. The white Oxford shirt in unforgiving. The green plaid button-up, on the other hand, is like a pair of navy chinos: a durable, stain-absorbing workhorse. These clothes allow kids to be kids in the best way possible while still dressing well.
Kids don’t need 25 stupid T-shirts. They need seven decent button-ups. They don’t need sweatpants with hideous hamburger designs plastered all over them.
They need simple, cotton, navy chinos. They don’t need bright-orange Crocs. They need washable canvas boat shoes that you bought in the offseason for 75% off. If you want to dress your kids decently, it’s not impossible. You just need a change of mindset and a little creativity.
O.w. root, Fashion, Kids clothing, Chinos, Lifestyle, Men’s style