Modesty and Shopping

**Disclaimer: I originally wrote this post 6 months ago and just forgot to publish it...so it's definitely a summer post, but something maybe worth sharing.**

                                             

I wasn't sure what to title this post, so I just went with what quickly came to mind...."Modesty and Shopping." Makes sense, right? In a way I can already see how the two go hand-in-hand, but then I look at that title and think it doesn't make any sense.

Regardless, I wanted to write about my experience bathing suit shopping with my two little girls. Now can you see where the word "modesty" might come in, right? ;)

So I thought this would be somewhat of an easy process. I take my 4 year old and 3 year old to one department store, they see a cute bathing suit (preferably one piece) we buy it and go home.

Well, it wasn't that easy. It wasn't a painful process either...don't get me wrong. I find it quite fun shopping with my two girls...most of the time. However, I was a little surprised at the selection of bathing suits some of these stores were offering and a little sticker shocked at their price tag.

Let's see...we looked for swim suits at several stores for about 2 weeks. Now this isn't to say I shopped every day during the week...because I didn't, but some of the stores we looked at included Target, Kohls, Gymboree, and Old Navy (which was the last place we looked and the place that had the best price and selection).

Now if your kids are like mine, they are instantly drawn to certain characters- like Disney princesses or Minnie Mouse (she seems to always be a favorite around here). My oldest went so far as asking me for a bathing suit she saw at Target one day with ponies on it from a show she had never even seen before. That was fun- trying to explain to her why I wasn't going to get that particular one for her. :) And some stores are more into the characters than others. I'm sure it's a branding thing, but that was interesting to observe.

And the overall price range for most of these bathing suits fell anywhere between $20 to almost $40. You might be thinking that the lower end of that scale isn't really all that much to pay for, but honestly, I knew that my girls would outgrow these things quickly, so I wasn't going to drop more than $40 total for something they would only wear a few times.

Is that cheap of me?

Maybe....

But I like to think of it as being practical. :)

Call it what you will, we just kept looking around at different places until finding what we were looking for.

One day while browsing some stores in the mall, I spotted Old Navy and thought, why not check them out? Besides, their commercial jingles are always pretty catchy and they pride themselves on being a good bargain. So we entered the store and headed straight to the back where they keep the bathing suits. I actually found that they had a pretty good selection of girls bathing suits. And they were character-less...which was something I was shooting for! (My girls already own a ton of character-based clothes, so I wanted them to get something a little different this time).

Old Navy was also having a good sale so we got each bathing suit they picked out for under $12!!! Now that was a good deal to me!

But let's back-track a bit...when shopping at a couple of the stores early on, I was a bit surprised by the number of skimpy 2 piece bathing suits they sell for little ones...like for kids 5 and under. I mean we're talking triangle piece tops for little girls with small bottoms- some even had "extra" things attached like dangling beads and floppy ruffles. I realize everyone out there won't agree with me about this, but what are we teaching our little girls about themselves with suits like that? I know I really need to be careful here because there is a fine line to walk with this kind of topic, but I was just a little taken aback by some of the designs on these things.

After looking around at the options we were finding, I was beginning to get a bit discouraged. I even briefly looked online for some suits that I thought would be appropriate, but not knowing if the sizes online would be a good fit for my girls, I decided to keep looking.

Eventually we ended up at Old Navy where I picked out several bathing suit options for my girls to try on and made the mistake (if you will) of picking out a 2 piece. Remember, I was originally thinking we would just get them a one piece? Of course, my 4 year old gravitated toward the 2 piece, or tankini as they call it, and that was it! Once she saw it, there was no selling her on anything else!! My 3 year old saw this cute one piece with a floral arrangement on the front and loved it- so that was a win for her and a pretty easy decision for me to make on buying it. But my oldest daughter was set on the 2-piece. Now in the end, I'm not against young girls wearing 2 -pieces- don't get me wrong. There are some really cute and modest ones out there....and the one my 4 year old wanted (which is the one we ended up buying) is actually cute and covers well...I guess that is the point of a tankini. I just knew I wasn't going to buy her a triangle piece top with a separate bottom that had beads and ruffles dangling off the sides. No matter how badly she may have wanted something like that.


Oh and as soon as we got home from running some other errands that day, my girls had to wear their bathing suits around the house before bed time. :) It was cute watching them dance around the house in their new swim wear. My 3 year old kept putting her hands on her hips and smiling because she loved her new suit so much. Haha! It's the little things that get them excited sometimes. In the end, I'm just glad there are still bathing suits out there that cover up a decent amount without being too trendy and/or expensive.

Anyone else have a similar experience with their kids? I know I was only suit shopping for my girls and not my son, but I wonder if shopping for boys can be a challenge too...or maybe not?