why i love hand-me-downs

Gennie got a new scooter! Well, new to her, anyway. There is a fantastic family in our church who has blessed us again and again with hand-me-downs that their kids have grown out of. Gennie and their daughter are about the same body shape so the clothes always work for her, and this time they gave us some bigger boy stuff for when the boy is a toddler. Gennie loves getting new clothes and daily asks to wear "something from Gracie". This last Christmas they went thru their toys and gave us a few things like the Little People dollhouse with all the accessories and a rolling suitcase that Gennie loved to drag around whenever she went over to play. It was better than garage-saleing!

When I was a kid we had two families who did the same for my sister and me. Being a preacher's family we didn't always make much money . . . enough to pay bills and not go hungry but certainly not enough for name-brand clothes and shoes . . . ask Kev and me about Pro-wing shoes sometime. It was always like Christmas morning when we would get a bag of clothes to sort thru . . . especially since they could afford some of the "cool clothes" at the time . . . Guess Jeans and Keds shoes to wear without the laces in. Since then I've always loved garage sales and especially thrift stores. Usually the clothes are properly broken in and don't shrink in the washing so you know if it fits when you bring it home, it should keep fitting. And kids consignment stores are fabulous, too. Since she wears the clothes for such a short time before she outgrows them, it's so great to get a huge bag of stuff for $5. For myself, I love vintage stuff, mostly from the 70's but earlier stuff, too. Cracks my parents up.

I've heard some parents completely against hand-me-downs . . . too used or ratty looking or gross that someone else wore it . . . personally I draw the line at underwear . . . and I guess if that's your opinion, do your thing. But for us, it has saved us a ton of money and Gennie usually looks cute . . . if I do say so myself . . . and it makes her happy to wear something that her friends used to wear . . . and has taught her more about sharing. I have to admit that it's kinda hard for me to not start going thru our old baby stuff and finding someone to share with but propriety says to wait until we're sure we're done having kids to do that. If I learned nothing else from college, I learned not to sell your World Civilizations book at Christmas break to buy presents for your friends back home when you have to take the second semester of the course when you get back in Jan.