Most of the purchases we made are impulsive, we see something that it’s beautiful and we just want it. Just like that. Even though, sometimes we don’t really need it.

It frequently happens with the clothes we buy for our children. They are cute, small and in some way irresistible. Our kids will look great with them, so the temptation we face it’s pretty huge.

In spite of that, you may have been in the situation of buying some clothes with all your enthusiasm and when your kids try them on they don’t fit them properly, they feel uncomfortable, or they don’t like them and they don’t want to wear them… And in the end, all our eagerness finishes in a box in the closet.

To prevent that it happens regularly I have created this Tips & Tricks section. A series of posts which aim is that you get right with all your kids’ clothing purchases.

Probably, some of the points I’ll suggest to you to keep in mind before doing your purchases will be logical or usual to you. However, I’m sure that some others will be new and will help you to see clothes with another point of view. You’ll see that some of the facets will be common over the years, whereas some others will be changing in accordance with the children’s growth.
Off we go.

Now that the good weather has arrived and that summer is around the corner, I’d like to talk about the girls’ dresses. I want to focus on dresses for girls aged four and especially in their length.

The length of the dress is one of the common facets that, the way I see it, should be constant through the years. A right length for a dress is till the girls’ knees or over them.

This measure allows them move comfortably, sitting down, kneeling, walking, running, climbing stairs and even crawling without being disturbed by the dress. Their legs’ movements aren’t conditioned to the dress and they can “forget” about what they’re wearing.

It also coincide that, in these ages, kids are learning their parts of the body, so it’s interesting that those are visible to them or at least that they can locate them at first sight; and especially that they aren’t hidden under layers of fabric.

What happens if the dress length is until their feet?
The girls will step on their own dress while walking or running, or it will be trodden on by their mates or friends. They will have to control the space the dress requires, and that’s something really complicated for girls of four years.

When they want to stand up, the dress will also be an inconvenient, and when they want to sit on a chair, it’s very likely that the dress fabric will get caught through its legs; and it’s evident that crawling will be completely unviable.

As you can see, the girls’ natural movement will be impeded and it’ll be conditioned to the clothes they’re wearing.

The dress length over the knees it’s a common advice that I make for all kind of dresses, although we have to pay special attention to those that girls daily wear.

We have to ensure that our kids’ clothing let them move freely and favor their motor attempts. It is through the movement of their body how children develop, interact with the environment and learn from it, and taking care of small things we can contribute very positively to their growth.

This is why I invite you to visit the Pinterest board I’ve created in which you’ll find more suggestions and examples of appropriate dresses for girls aged four.

Now I’d like to know your opinion.
Knowing your point of view it’s really important to me, so I’m all ears.
We’ll meet on the comments below.

All the best,
Laia

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Photo credits: 01 – April showers | 02 – Bobo choses  | 03 – SandiLake | 04 – K & Elphy  | 05 – FU-KO | 06 – Annaplis and company | 07 – Petit backstage | 08 – Marispiker