staining the nice clothes

I have a slight obsession with Matilda Jane clothes. With three daughters, we go a little crazy with the clothes. These are well made, unique, boutique quality pieces. They make it all the way down the sister line. Sounds great right? RRRRRRRNNNNNNN (that was meant to sound like a buzzer... you know, like the one that ends the half at a basketball game. NOTE: do basketball games even have halves???? I DO know they have buzzers!!!)

Have you ever noticed that no matter how hard you try, it is always the nice clothes that get messed up? My kid could have on a black shirt all week long. Make mud pies. Finger paint. Wave around a fist full of permanent markers. And that crappy black shirt I hate and am hoping, praying will get a tear or a stain or ANYTHING that would give me just the littlest excuse to throw it away stays clean and neat and in mint condition.

But when the same kid has on a white shirt, or even worse, that beautiful designer dress you bought because you just loved it and she would look sooooooo cute in it at church (how can you even get dirty going to church, right????).... yeah that dress. After wearing it for 4.5 seconds it has ketchup on it. And no one was even eating. It was like a drop of red just fell randomly from the ceiling and landed.right.there. on the dress.

On the same token your son could wear his ugly Target pants (not that all Target pants are ugly...just this pair in particular)while wresting an alligator in a tub of syrup and you dern well know nothing will happen to those pants. But the moment Son slips into those GAP kids board shorts all heck breaks loose. He falls on air and skins the knees. (are patches still cool????) And later snags them on a feather and there is now a hole in the booty.

Does this only happen to me? Sometimes I feel like I need to invest in a giant hamster wheel for my kids whenever they are wearing something I actually like. And or paid a lot of money for. And it does not even have to be just the expensive stuff. After all, I know better (does not mean I do not do it!!!!) than to buy anything fancy for a child. God forbid I become one of those helicopter moms always yelling "DON'T TOUCH THAT! STEP AWAY FROM THE SANDBOX. YOU CAN JUST WATCH THE OTHER KIDS PLAY" and weird stuff like that. Nope. all you have to do is like the outfit and you might as well just kiss it goodbye. And smear in your lipstick while you are at it. Because only the good stuff gets messed up. Boo