Back to School Sickness

Can someone please explain the phenomenon of back to school clothes shopping? I get that the kids need your general school supplies; pencils, erasers, notebooks, backpacks and the like, but is a new new fall wardrobe necessary? Clothes purchased in August to get through the fall and winter months? It's still hot when the kids trudge back into the hallowed hallways of education. From past experience they would rather wear the favorite clothes they have now as far as I can tell. I think my daughter's been wearing the same shorts and t-shirt in rotation with another set all summer. Or that could be a statement on the laundry cycle in our house.


The retailers have issued their call to arms commercials that it is time to hit the stores and it drives me batty. This is probably what happens when I watch early morning television before the caffeine has hit my brain; rants begin zinging through my skull looking for a place to escape. I really do not see the necessity of the back to school clothing stampeded. My kids certainly do not out grow their clothes on the academic calendar. Now if that happened, I too would join the lemming squad and head to the nearest JC Penney and heed the spend your money now mantra, but until that unique moment, I'll pass on the scheduled shop and pick up the bargain's in a few weeks time. (SuperHubby is going to be so proud when he reads this!)

I am just as eager as the next parent to hustle my little darlings back into the classrooms for fear their brains are rotting without some extra stimulus. However, I am not eager to empty my wallet just to buy them new clothes to show off to their friends on the first few days of school. It's gotten pretty sickening in the retail environment how quickly they start promoting for the next "event". That's a completely different rant that will most certainly take up much page space.

Are we one of the few hold-outs that only shops year round and capitalize on big sales so we are not being screwed by full retail prices? I don't find back to school sales full of bargains, that's for sure. Inevitably the same pair of jeans a few weeks down the road will be half price. There is no logic in this annual pilgrimage just to buy new clothes for the school year. It's a retail driven process that convinces the kids they need to make fashion statements so the retailer's haul in the bucks.

Just sayin'

Does anyone else agree with me?