Maybe we should bind their feet too...

No more organic milk and Flintstones vitamins. No more high protein breakfasts, whole grain bread, and healthy snacks. No more “Eat your vegetables” and “Have a piece of fruit.”

From now on I'm feeding the kids Pop Tarts, Kool-Aid, and lead paint chips. They’re growing way, way too fast. We need to cut back on nutritious food at Chez V.

Five months after buying my 11-year-old son an entire school wardrobe, I had to replace it. That’s three pairs of cargo pants, two pairs of jeans, a pair of sneakers, a pair of loafers, two sweatshirts and a handful of t-shirts. Ka-ching.

Ditto the Grrrl, who at age 9 is heads and shoulders above most of her classmates. Halfway through the school year, I had to replace all her pants, jeans, and skorts, and most of her t-shirts. She desperately needs new shoes. No matter what she picks out, she wears two to three outfits constantly and outgrows others before they ever make it onto her short list of “favorites.” The only thing worse than buying all the clothes is seeing some of them discarded with the tags still on them. Ka-ching.

We buy socks and underwear the way some people buy bread and milk, which is to say all. the. time. What isn’t outgrown is destroyed by the extremely hard water here in Belgium. Wash an item three times and it will look like you’ve owned it for years. Grayed. Pilled. Dingey. Crunchy. Ready for holes. Our laundry looks like it should be hanging from a clothes line in a tenement somewhere.

My credit card company is smiling because last night I ordered spring clothes for both kids from Lands End and LL Bean. Today’s task is bagging up and organizing the outcasts and hand-me-downs pulled from the closets and drawers. And I need to get to the grocery store--for bread and water. I'm thinking Pop Tarts and Kool-Aid may be TOO nutritious.

March 15, 2007

Copyright 2007 Veronica McCabe Deschambault and V-Grrrl in the Middle. All rights reserved.

Comments

[javacurls]

Never did I think I would describe my clothes as being "crunchy" but you are so right! lol!! After I air dry some of my clothes they look like they were pressed with a ton of starch and can walk right out of my house. LOL!!

And my whites! Argh!! Don't even get me started. Dingy, with some weird gray spots that weren't there prior to being washed. Is it the washer or the detergent? It's a mystery. I refuse to buy ANYTHING white while I'm here in Belgium. After three washes whites looks like gray & my brand new dark jeans are already started to fade!! That's it! I'm buying a whole new wardrobe when I get back to the US! :)

[V-Grrrl]

I use a European washer and Calgonit laundry detergent plus a powdered water softener (Calgon) that's added with the detergent, and I still have problems. Sometimes I add vinegar to the wash. And those gray spots--a big ME TOO on that one. What's up with that?!?

[RD]

OK, now this is strange because while we lived in Brussels I thought my whites had never looked whiter. I just attributed it to the fact that the laundry soaked for an hour during its endless 3-hour wash cycle. (It took forever to do laundry for a family of 4!)

[Char]

I am right there with you - I nearly fainted when I had to buy N-boy size 6 mens shoes and he hasn't even turned 11 yet.

And my soon to be Kindergartner is growing so fast she is wearing all of her sister's clothes (who is a shrimpy 8 year old) now. Yikes.

[V-Grrrl]

Char,

"A" is 11.5 years and wearing size 9 men's shoes, only a half size smaller than his Dad. And the Grrrl? She's 9.5 years old and some of her shoes are size 7 women's.

[Shirley]

I remember those days ... now it's about the same frequency for my 19-year old son, but for style reasons or wearing out the shoes. The gray and/or oily spots for my clothes were caused by fabric softener sheets. Now I only use white vinegar with water for fabric softener. (My machine dispenses whatever softener you use at the right time.)

[Shirl Grrrl]

Okay, my kids are just runts. J-Boy is still wearing his VERY FIRST pairs of underwear. My 9 year old girl could still wear a 3T bathing suit last year! She still has original undies. They are getting a little bit taller but that is the only place that I see that is growing. J had on a tank top yesterday and I swear the 10 month old baby across the street has bigger arms then him. Every year I buy them a size bigger clothes, thinking surely they've grown and they swim on them. J has size 8 pants but they are adjustable waste and they are chinched as tight as they can go! J has a ton of hand-me-downs from my nephew that he may be able to wear by the time he's a senior in high school! Small feet too, but they come by that honestly. I have to buy M 7 slims in pants or they will fall off her. Thank goodness that I can find them in the stores!

[V-Grrrl]

Shirl Grrrl,

So are they eating Pop Tarts? : ) I want to know your secret!


"A" is wearing 14/16 and the Grrrl is just coming into a 14 this summer. I swear they're not on HGH!

[Shirl Grrrl]

Pop Tarts are only eaten as an after school snack. My kids are just not big eaters. They would rather play than eat. I'm not complaining as I'd rather have this than to have to fight them on eating too much. J's problem is that he loves lemonaide and will hardly drink anything else. Both my kids still drink Boost (which we call shakes) because we do worry about them not getting enough nutrients. They love them.

[furiousBall]

I've been serving my kids chocolate donuts and cigarettes to slow them down (joking).

[V-Grrrl]

FB,

Nicotine is supposed to suppress the appetite. Maybe some nicotine gum would be age-appropriate? : )

[wordgirl]

I hear you loud and clear. Not only are my sons growing like a family of storks, but the oldest (at 6' and almost 6'2") outgrow their pants in the length, but are still extremely slender in the waistline. Men's shops assume that anyone wearing a 34 length pant must be bigger around than either of my kids are. Belts all around...and we have to punch extra holes in them, too. An exercise in futility.

[Ortizzle]

Grey laundry. I hear ya. I just stopped buying white clothes. Especially underwear. Nothing more depressing than grey knickers.

[V-Grrrl]

Ortizzle,

Grey hair is pretty depressing too....along with grey skies... but grey cashmere sweaters? Those are good! Just don't wash them in the hard water!

[Nance]

Try Oxyclean. Seriously, I swear by the stuff. My husband actually got complimented on how white his socks were by his female coworkers once when he was removing muddy boots at work. They were so amazed. Naturally, they assumed that *I* did the laundry and lauded me copiously. Rick immediately hogged the credit and told them that not only did *he* do the laundry, but that his secret for bright whites was Oxyclean in the wash. They were smitten anew.

[mamatulip]

I have been really lucky in that, when it comes to Oliver, a very generous girlfriend of mine has handed her son's wardrobe over to me. And my girlfriend has very good taste, so Oliver is always stylin', even in his jammies.

Julia, on the other hand, is tall and lean and grows like a weed. I had to do a mid-winter/spring shop for her last week, because several of her pants looked more like knickers on her.

In short -- I hear ya.

[Mary-LUE]

I think that is one advantage to mine being 8 years apart. They aren't going through that level of growth spurt at the same time. Bless you and may God spare your bank account! ;)

[Tonya]

Give them Nutella and cafe - that seems to work for the people here!

[deezee]

It just gets worse. When my son turned 13 he started eating four meals a day (add food to the ka-ching!) and now outgrows clothes so fast it spins my head!

[Angela]

Oh, dear. These years are coming for me, too. Right now, almost half of my youngest's clothes are hand-me-downs, some from two brothers ago! And dear Lord, what that awful water must do to the skin and hair. You have my sympathies...