I will never own up to judging your child, as I did no such thing. I never used the word 'tramp' and would absolutely
never use it, nor imply it, when discussing a child. Are you and I reading the same thread? I haven't made any comments about any of your daughter's clothes, as I have no idea what clothes she wears. All I know is that she doesn't wear character clothing. I haven't said that I disagree with your choices at all - that is irrelevant and no concern of mine. Your daughter not wanting to wear a Mickey shirt is no business of mine.
It's the language you use that makes the judgment clear. Yes i used the word tramp, but that is what it seems to me that you are trying to imply, without coming right out and saying it. "I know exactly what you are implying", and "that says it all", ect are deragatory comments and make your intent clear. You aren't stating facts, but attempting to imply volumes by using such phrases. It is clear what your opinion of my allowing my DD to grow out of charaters is from the statements you have made about it. Agian, you are certainly entitled to your opinion, but own it.
I have read what you have said, and still in this response, you continue to use the word preschooler in reference to wardrobe choices. We get that you and your daughter feel that children past age 5 it seems, are acting or dressing like preschoolers if they wear character clothes. Got that. We get that you aren't surprised that Disney doesn't make size 12 bathing suits, as you can't imagine why children of that age/size would wear those clothes. Got that too. Whether you realize it or not, those are judgments. I see that you are trying to say that you don't think there is a market for character clothes in that size, but perhaps you could have worded things differently and without so much negative or judgmental implications?
I didn't actually say much of this. You are being very generous with editoralizing what I actually said. What I said was that my DD chooses not to wear character clothing, at least in part becuase she doesn't like the idea of dressing like the preschoolers she knows. The vast majority of children we know stop wearing character clothing after preschool. I fail to see how that is any kind of judgment. I also siad that I am not surprised that Disney doesn't make a size 12 in these things any more becuase the didn't seem to sell well. The rest of it is pretty much your editoralizing what I said. My actual statements, without the embellishment, are stated facts, nothing more. At least one other person on this thread has said that they don't see the judgment in what I ACTUALLY SAID either.
Here is the quick list of words you are putting in my mouth:
1. I think that kids who wear character clothes are dressing and acting like preschoolers.
2. I cannot imagine why chilren of this age would wear character clothes
I didn't say either of these things, in fact I think I said that EITHER choice should be just fine multiple times. My ONLY problem here is the implication that a child choosing not to wear character clothing must be growing up too fast and dressing inappropiately. That is simply not the case anymore than the idea that a child choosing to wear characters is dressing/ acting like a preschooler.
My daughter, OP's child and others on here like those clothes, and that is fine. Much of what I see at the mall for size 12 is not age appropriate for her at age 8, nor does my daughter like the styles, so that is a going concern for us. At the moment, we are good with Old Navy, P.S. Aeropostale and Kohl's. My daughter loves her Old Navy character shirts, but would also love character bathing suits, as would the OP's daughter, but based on responses on here, I can see that there may not be a huge market in that size for bathing suits. I will disagree about shirts though, as the character shirts at Old Navy in size 14 sell out very quickly in the store, and online, so there is a market for those.
I would agree that a lot of what I see in the mall from stores like Justice and Abercrombie is NOT appropiate for pre-teens. We also do well with the store you mentioned. I think that the shirts selling at Old Navy has at least something to do with sizing differences. DD takes at least one, sometimes 2 sizes larger in a shirt there than Children's Place, Kohls, and department stores. A child normally buying an 8-10 is probably buying that 12-14. They are really narrow and run really small. We found Disney store stuff to be cut wider and DD took at least a size, sometimes two, smaller there than Old Navy.
I thank you for your opinion, but I am done, as I feel as if we've diverted the thread, and that was not my intention at all.
Tiger