At 37 years old and two pregnancies later, I am feeling wobbly, and droopy, and don’t feel that confident about the way I look. So I now channel all my efforts into making my girls look nice.
Having two daughters, I get lots of chances to dress them up; weddings, kids’ parties, christenings, even family BBQs – any excuse!
I am always on the look out for pretty things to buy for them, and finding a gorgeous little dress at a car boot sale or in a charity shop is really satisfying. Even supermarkets can produce some lovely clothing for kids.
Luckily my eldest daughter Betty is a real girly girl and will not wear anything other than dresses. My youngest is not so much a girly girl, but she tries to copy her sister, even though I can tell it goes against the grain a little bit! So at the moment, she too is easy to get into dresses.
I recently met the lovely Jools Oliver and talked to her about the difference between dressing boys and girls (she has four children, the youngest of which is her only boy). She says that she finds it much easier to dress her girls nicely for less, and ends up spending a lot more on her son, Buddy’s clothes.
For friends’ parties, my eldest daughter always wants to go dressed in her Snow White costume. This slightly breaks my heart as she has some really gorgeous dresses that are perfect for parties.
Sometimes I manage to persuade her out of her Snow White get-up by telling her that no fancy-dress is allowed, just so that I can get her into MY favourite dress of hers. She looks at me like I’m nuts, particularly when we rock up at the party and there are Tinkerbells and Spidermen roaming around.
Betty loves picking out hair bands and clips to wear, and I love to plait her hair – she has gorgeous thick hair, which of course is a nightmare to maintain, mainly because she sucks the ends making them all matted and tangled.
The last party we went to, Betty was dressed up in a gorgeous Gap dress, perfect for a party; we were about to leave the house, when we realised she had outgrown her ‘party’ shoes, and so the choice of footwear was: crocs, wellies trainers, winter boots, or school shoes. We opted for the school shoes, but it did look a bit silly.
And one thing I have learnt – it is best to get kids ready for parties seconds before you actually have to leave the house. Any earlier than this, they will look like they have been dragged through a hedge backwards by the time you actually leave.
Elsie Button