Alison Curtis: Navigating the aisles when developing a kid’s taste for clothes

But at the same time when your child is 8 you can’t have her rocking into school with a sequence mini skirt and a leopard print camisole!

For the first few years of a childs life you can dress them exactly how you want to. They don’t really have much say in it and if you love head to toe fluorescent green, well there isn’t much the kid can do about it.

When they get a little older some kids become picky about materials and fabrics they like, sleeve length, tightness of clothes and so on, so we have to bend a bit more. Maybe your darling doesn’t like the itchy lace dress anymore?

Also during the first years as parents you can mostly get away with shopping alone. Choosing the outfits you love at a leisurely pace, with no one begging you to wrap this up and head to the toy shop.

But as the years go on the kids want more of a say in what they wear and when you have an obligation to start bringing them with you to buy clothes, this is when the floodgates of all sorts of chaos are opened.

First you have to convince them it is something fun to do, then you have to get them to pay attention long enough to get the bits you need and all before a meltdown might happen or tiredness kicks in.

Finding the right sizes and the right colours with the right patterns all the while eyeing up your ticking time bomb is rather stressful indeed.

So for as long as I could get away with it I did all of Joan’s clothing shopping on my own. I loved it. I had my spots I liked to go and the looks I loved on her (blue and stars), but as she got older things changed.

She didn’t want to wear jeans anymore at a time when I had just bought two or three pairs, we then switched to a uniform of leggings and dresses. Then after buying three or four lovely, edgy and cool dresses (all black at her request) she no longer wanted to wear dresses. Her uniform then switched to leggings and sweatshirts.

Honestly it was hard to keep up. That is when I decided to just bring her with me. The first few times were pretty smooth. We generally agreed on items that she needed and I could she her taste developing as I “loosened” my fashion grip.

However from about the age of six onwards things got a bit tricky. As Joan is so so tall we have always been buying clothes for two or three ages above her actual age and I found that clothes for girls aged eight-/nine-plus got very mature.

And those were the exact things Joan was drawn to, the glittery crop tops, the short skirts and ridiculous tank tops.

Trying to convince her that a mesh Varsity Blues crop top isn’t a good investment was a hard thing to do. We did argue a lot about what she was allowed to buy and there were dark moments of disagreement.

This period lasted a little while until I started to expand the shops we went too. Name It was an amazing find as the clothes for girls nine-12 are gorgeous but not babyish so Joan felt she got more grown-up clothes and I felt they were age appropriate.

We started to find tops and dresses in stunning colours and gave “full coverage” that she actually wanted to wear.

It is a tricky thing as you do want them to have their individual style and to explore their own tastes as fashion becomes such a big part of peoples identities when they get older. But at the same time when your child is eight you can’t have her rocking into school with a sequin mini skirt and a leopard print camisole.

So the next time you are out shopping and you see a crumbling parent fighting with their kid in the clothing department, give them a hug.