Clothes

I love baby clothes.  I always have.  Buying and then picking out what Tiernen was going to wear on a daily basis was one of my favorite parenting perks.  When I had my adopted granddaughter Aisha, I used to buy her 2-3 new outfits a week.  Aisha's mom once commented that every single 6 month outfit that Aisha owned was purchased by me.

It is no different with my foster children.  

At one point, I had bins with every size, every gender, and every season baby clothes from newborn to 4T in my attic, folded and labeled, in bins.  

Then I got so overwhelmed, that even knowing they were in the attic gave me an anxiety attack.  I put them all on my porch, posted on all the online garage sale pages, and told people to take what they wanted or needed.  There were at least 40 people who pawed through my bins, leaving very, very few items left.  I donated them to Thrifty Shopper and called it good.

One of my favorite weekly activities is planning the kids' outfits for the week.  I have labeled hanging organizers in their closets, and it is empowering for them to "pick" their clothes (even though I kinda did that for them).

I think my baby clothes obsession has a very logical root:  I didn't have a lot of clothes growing up.  I remember being made fun of in sixth grade because I only had a few pairs of pants (it was right after our house burned down).  As an adult, I have more clothes than I can wear.  Even when I was a young and poor single parent, all of Tiernen's baby clothes came from LL Bean and Baby Gap (all sales!)  

My kids have at least 25 different outfits for any given season.  Because they are kids, they grow out of them quickly, so maybe then get 4-5 wears.  When they grow out of them, I donate them.  If they get stained and can't be salvaged, I throw them away.

There are worse addictions to have, right?