Comments on: The Simple Dollar Weekly Roundup: Hierarchy of Pants Edition

By: Marsanne

Marsanne — Sun, 09 May 2010 23:36:37 +0000

My son is 9 and still won’t wear anything but khaki pants or those nylon basketball shorts. He always wore the basketball shorts until he began school, then he went to khakis. That’s all it’s been since, and I’m not sure it will every change. :)

By: Kerberos

Kerberos — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 21:14:55 +0000

I’ve never liked the stiffness of jeans, and to this day (I’m 33) I don’t wear jeans.

Now I don’t let the stepkids get away with anything though. We where taking the kids out to breakfeast at Mcd, one of the kids age 15 had his pajamabottoms on. I told him to get pants. He countered with “I’ve seen other kids do it!”, i just replied with “Yes, and they are retarded, now get some real pants on!”, sure enough he grumbled but got his jeans.

Smile.

By: BW

BW — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 21:02:42 +0000

a little late to comment here, and I see other people said similar things above, but I would not wear jeans until about 7th grade. I found them uncomfortable and was also unable to unbutton and rebutton them to go to the bathroom!!

By: Tammy

Tammy — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 20:17:55 +0000

My little girl has a weird aversion to buttons–of any kind, on any clothing. If I am wearing a blouse with buttons, she does not want to sit on my lap, because she might touch the buttons. She had terrible fits about wearing any pants with buttons or snaps (and the best fitting toddler clothes have the adjustable waists with buttons on the insides!). She only wanted to wear what she called “softy pants”. My husband said she was always dressed like a hobo in her sweatpants.

It was a phase that she is slowly growing out of. She will now wear pants with buttons, but she still doesn’t like shirts with buttons…mine or hers. And the only way I got her wearing those pants was by not giving her much of a choice. (You can wear this pair, or this pair.) Good luck! :-)

By: Jen

Jen — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 19:01:06 +0000

I was a sweatpants kid, too–my mom used to line-dry our jeans, and they were stiff as cardboard. I switched to leggings when they came into fashion and finally learned to appreciate jeans in middle school (when Mom no longer had a clothesline).

By: Evita

Evita — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 17:32:40 +0000

I am with your son on the jeans. I don’t like to wear them either and as an adult, I can choose not to (I don’t own a pair anymore). Good of you to indulge his preferences!

By: Beth

Beth — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 15:20:15 +0000

The sweatpants are soft and comfy. Is he growing so fast that they dig into his waist less than the jeans?

By: elderly librarian

elderly librarian — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 15:00:28 +0000

My son preferred sweat pants because they are soft and don’t restrict movement. He was and is still very sensitive to fabrics and has distinct preferences. He won’t wear anything just to be cool. He also wore “mismatched” socks. (the same socks, different colors) Yes, he is artistic too. He just bought his first pair of jeans in years and years and he is over 21! I was surprised. Not so uncommon! Children go through weird phases and laugh about it years later.

By: Geoff Hart

Geoff Hart — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 14:26:42 +0000

My son also had an aversion to jeans; still does, in fact. For him, the problem is that he has extremely sensitive skin, enough so that he used to wear his shirts inside-out so the labels wouldn’t touch his skin. (Took us a while to figure this out and start removing the labels.) Maybe your son is the same? (My son has a genetic neurological disorder that is responsible for this, but some people are just unusually sensitive without having any underlying medical problem.)

It’s also worth checking the fit of the jeans. I have a couple pairs of jeans that I love — they fit almost as comfortable as my sweatpants — but a few others seemed fine in the store and now I simply can’t wear them because of how they (fail to) fit my waist. The styles vary so greatly in their cut that perhaps you just haven’t found the right cut for your son.

By: Christine

Christine — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 04:36:38 +0000

Maybe the demin is too stiff. You can soften them up a little by running them thru the drier on fluff for 10 minutes before wearing them.

By: Kerry D

Kerry D — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 21:49:39 +0000

I’m still trying to think through if there’s anything really wrong with children wearing clothes they slept in the night before… Aside from potentially being a bit wrinkled…

At times this has been my son’s obsession, and I chose it as a battle “not” to fight. Now he likes to sleep in his underwear only, so that problem took care of itself. The current discussion is whether it is appropriate to reuse socks! ;0 I tell him no on that one, each day deserves fresh underwear and socks! I think he secretly recycles when I’m not looking… (yes, he is somewhat sensorial, Asperger’s leanings.)

By: Stan

Stan — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 21:04:12 +0000

I’m going to skip the jeans/no jeans discussion and comment on the Wise Bread blog about “life after bankruptcy.”

For the most part, I thought the blog post was spot on…people can and do rebuild after a bankruptcy. I filed a Chapter 7 in 2004 and have been able to get on with my life just fine since.

Like anything else in life, it’s important to look at what happened and learn from what happened. Some folks don’t learn and are back in the same boat later on, I know.

By: almost there

almost there — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 20:43:16 +0000

I guess wearing jeans depends on when you grew up. As a teenager of the 70s I would pay $10 for a pair of jeans and even today, thanks to globalization, I can find the kmart brand jeans on sale at the same price. My favorite were the Seafarer brand Bell bottoms that I used to wear as a sailor (squid, popeye, swab jocky, etc) .

By: Tricia

Tricia — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 20:36:37 +0000

I used to do therapy in the school system. I saw this alot with kids that had sensory issues. They wore sweatpants because they had no restrictions, tags in the back of the shirts had to be cut off, socks had to be worn inside out (the seams would bother them). There are kids that are just super sensitive to textures, and at a young age, they don’t know why, and can’t explain it either. I once saw a teacher take 25 minutes to get a kindergartener to put his boots on, he just had a problem with the tightness and smell of the boot.

By: friend

friend — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 19:33:03 +0000

P.S. At the moment my 13-y-o son wears jeans every day, even to church. This preference has taught him to do his own laundry, as he owns just 3 pairs. Fine by me.

By: Nicole

Nicole — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 19:21:10 +0000

Jeans are so cold in the morning.

By: Leah

Leah — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 19:12:37 +0000

I didn’t like jeans either. I didn’t wear them until 7th grade or so, and then I gave them up again for high school (only wore slacks) and college. I now wear jeans, but I still prefer wearing thrift store pairs that are a bit broken in. As a kid, I mostly wore leggings (thanks, 80s!).

I liked the marriage posts too. Good to keep sharing them. I’m always interested to hear about how people work out their relationship stuff. Even more interesting, I think, is the post just prior about managing money in a partnership without being married.

By: chacha1

chacha1 — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 19:06:04 +0000

I don’t even own any jeans.

Loved the “white hot truth” post linked above. Another discovery!

The marriage debate on GRS probably rages on. Anytime JD puts up a marriage-related post, interesting stuff comes crawling out of the woodwork … just like here. :-)

By: Kristen@TheFrugalGirl

Kristen@TheFrugalGirl — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 18:25:36 +0000

My son was JUST like your son when he was younger. He absolutely loathed any pants except sweatpants or running pants (what he called “swishy pants”!). I’m pleased to report that he’s been wearing jeans for the last 4-5 years now (he’s currently 10)…it just took him a while to come around, and mostly, he came around all on his own.

By: mes

mes — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 18:05:28 +0000

My 4 year old picks out his own clothes most mornings, and it makes him happy. He does love his fuzzy (fleece) pants, but he’ll wear almost anything. Maybe that’s because I buy most of his pants used, so they’re already broken in, and not so stiff anymore.