I have long complained to my husband about the fact that ladies’ clothes so rarely have pockets, or – even more annoyingly – have fake pockets with zips or buttons that make you think there is practical storage available, but in fact has no actual pocket space.
So imagine my outrage recently when Little Man graduated from Newborn size clothes into 0 – 3 Months size (he’s still a dinky little chap!) and I realised that several of his new outfits included pockets. Not fake just-for-fashionable-purposes pockets. ACTUAL POCKETS. The people who design clothes, and apparently refuse to believe that adult females have any possessions they might want to store on their person, have simultaneously decided that my baby son – who is too young to understand the concept of ownership – might be in need of functioning pockets. What is wrong with these people?!
So of course this got me thinking about some other ludicrous decision-making that has gone into the baby clothes we own, and which I now screen all clothes for prior to purchasing…
Baby Clothes Nonsense
Elasticated ankles
On the face of it, this is a smart idea. We were gifted a really cute babygrow which had elasticated ankles, to ensure that baby’s feet stay at the bottom of the trousers
Except when we went to dress Little Man, we discovered that the elastic was so tight that we couldn’t actually get his feet in there (and if we had, presumably it would have totally cut off the blood supply to his legs).
Eventually the problem was resolved and the suit rendered useable by my husband breaking the elastic. This does, however, rather defeat the object of having it there in the first place. Consequently I’m now avoiding suits with elasticated ankles like the plate.
Ten Thousand Tiny Buttons
I mean, does this really need explaining? I often struggle with baby clothes that have a lot of poppers, especially at night because my hands often get a bit stiff and clumsy thanks to my rubbish joints. But when I discovered that some of our baby clothes have, instead of poppers, teeny tiny fiddly little buttons instead, I just had one question for the manufacturers: what the hell were you thinking? Those clothes have to be unfastened and refastened every time bubba needs a nappy change or just vomits all over himself. So seriously what the hell were you thinking?
Zippers are the future, incidentally.
The Blue / Pink / White / Grey Options
This deserves a blog post on its own, but – oh my god. The absolute BORING VOID OF BLAND GENDER NORMS that is most children’s clothing. I have a boy baby. But I don’t want to dress him in blue, blue, blue – or if I’m feeling racy, perhaps white or grey. THERE ARE OTHER COLOURS, PEOPLE. Whether I had a boy or girl I knew I wanted to dress them in lovely bright colours – red! Orange! Yellow! Green! Purple! So why is it so difficult to find nice jolly baby clothes that aren’t from some wildly expensive online boutique? Honestly I think baby clothes designers need to sit down, read some gender swapped books, and challenge their preconceptions that boys must wear blue and girls must wear pink and never the two shall meet.
Moreover: why are white clothes so popular, when they’re the clothing choice most difficult to clean up as good as new after a poo explosion?
Inconsistent unfastening design
This one was suggested by my husband, and I totally agree with him. There are so many variants of how baby clothes are fastened, and often if you buy multi packs, you have no idea what the fastening scheme is until you get the clothes home. Which means you have no idea whether you are buying something that’s going to drive you insane every time you change a nappy. If only there were a couple of set designs and you could clearly identify them beforehand, it would help avoid those awkward clothes that look cute but require ten minutes of wrestling to actually get the baby into.
Your experience of baby clothes nonsense…
What baby clothes nonsense have you experienced? Let me know in the comments!
I hate the tiny buttons! Especially on the back of clothing where it’s all the more awkward to get to for the 5 minutes you need for one tiny button. I’ve got some dresses for Natalie which are so cute but getting one done up is a major achievement for the day, although undoing them in much easier.
hi i just stumbled upon your post…and couldnt agree more. Other things that drive me mad are stupid ears on every hat, hoods for indoor clothes so you can never lay the baby down, buttons on collars and rough stitching, billion of itchy labels and absolutely not normal proportions. Any buttons on the back were definitely not designed by anyone who ever saw a baby, ankle baby socks also (maybe the purpose is a photoshoot only cause those never stay on or are so tight that cut of any blood circulation). Baby hats with seams that go along the fontanel lines ( do they even know how fragile baby head is?) and the worst is any piece of clothing that has to be puller over the head until baby can sit which is usually not before 6 months so anything smaller that size 68 should not even be over the head. Ah and one more thing …can someone please design clothes which covers the buttons or zip on the inside so that babys skin doesnt touch rough metal? …Sorry for long post but i really am thinking of making a kids clothing brand because of how annoying this is:-) would be also great to have not only clothes by total body length but by actual size (slim, medium and large)