Dandelion KIDS, Vancouver, BC and Port Moody, BC.

Yay! Annemarie from yoyomama.ca (http://www NULL.yoyomama NULL.ca) has written our first guest blog! Read on for her reflections on styles past and meaningful shopping.

The media (yoyomama included) has been full of articles on back to school fashions and style and all the things your child will need as they venture forth into a new year of preschool, kindergarten or beyond. I remember how I used to love choosing my back to school “outfit”, though I shudder now when I think of what I thought was styling. Pink jeans, ruffled neck nylon blouses, clompy wooden clogs. But for as long as possible I plan to pick my kids’ clothes on my own, because what a three-year-old princess-in-training thinks is appropriate for pre school isn’t necessarily what I think is appropriate. I’ve accepted that you have to give up a lot of control when you become a parent, so it makes me feel better to exert mine wherever I can.

The expectation these days seems to be that you’ll kit your kid out from tip to toe, just because the seasons are changing and school is starting, but that’s just not how I shop. I don’t hit one store at the mall and work my way from underwear on outwards, instead as the seasons change I go through the girls’ drawers and sort them into piles of too small, consign, save for next winter etc.

Then I refill the drawers with what we’ve got stored for fall ’09 for example, and then I spot the gaps and go out looking to fill them. It’s exhausting.

And it also means their wardrobes can be a bit haphazard with highlights and lowlights. I seem to fall down when it comes to finding good socks, tights and leggings to match the lovely dresses I have no problems spotting. But it also means their clothes tend to be more interesting (to me anyhow) and often have a story. Things along the lines of “That’s the organic cotton dress I got for $10 at that sample sale.” Or “When I bought this dress for M for fall, Stefanie at dandelion KIDS said her daughter L had the same dress.” True story and luckily L and M don’t go to the same school. Or “That’s the skirt her grandma sent back from England from a fair trade collective.” And I like it better that way, even though it may not be as organized or as matchy matchy. Which could be the whole root of the socks, tights and leggings problem.