One benefit of having multiple kids of the same gender is that you only have to buy clothes once, for the oldest child, and the rest can largely wear hand-me-downs. This is particularly useful for things like winter boots and coats or swim trunks, all of which get limited use per year and per kid, so you really get your money’s worth when you have several offspring.

Shirts, socks, and underwear can last through two, even three kids. But pants are tricky. There is what DH and I refer to as “the pants gap” — a  period between ages 4 and 8, where boys’ jeans never become hand-me-downs. They rip at the knees within weeks of being bought; you can patch them, but they also rip through the patches. Somewhere around the age 9 the kids change the way they play and are no longer on the floor quite as much, so pants can again survive to be handed down.

This post was brought to you by today’s rummaging through old clothes, looking for pants for Smurf, and finding (of course) nothing in his size. Plenty in size 9 and up, though.