Be Honest, Did You Ever Have To Wear Hand Me Downs?
By Rozie37
@Rozie37 (15499)
Turkmenistan
July 8, 2007 1:43am CST
Hated it!! I was the youngest of three girls. So by the time that the hand me down got down to me, in my opinion, it should have been going in the trash. My mother had Cancer, so she was too sick to work. All of our clothes came from the second hand store in the first place.
Not all of them were hand me downs, but all of them were second hand. She never bought second hand shoes or anything else, just our dresses. We were not allowed to wear pants because of our religion. The only good thing was, we were going by leaps and bounds, literally,(my older sister wore a size thirteen shoe in the seventh grade)so we didn't have to wear the same clothes for long at all.
12 people like this
26 responses
@molusk (857)
• Philippines
9 Jul 07
Rozie37 my friend, a good day to you. Have I ever wore hand me down
clothes? OMG, my friend. since childhood and even up to my college years, I have never tasted wearing brand new clothes. All my clothes since my early years are either hand me down from friends or from people I work for. If ever I can save some money from my work as a working student during my student years, I would go to a relief store selling second hand clothes from other countries especially from the US. There, I would spend time looking for used clothing that can suit my body. Even during my college graduation, the black pants and white shirt that I wore were relief clothes. That is why after graduation when I was immediately hired by a financial company, my boss took a kind look at my situation and advanced me some cash to have me buy new clothes.
2 people like this
@soulgurl (153)
• Malaysia
8 Jul 07
Hand me downs are a common thing for me.Being the youngest in the family, my hand me downs consist of not only clothes (which by the way include my underpants as well) but toys as well...and they say the youngest child are the most privileged..heheheh just like you, the only thing new on me was a pair of shoes..my feet are way bigger than my other siblings!
2 people like this
@jess368 (3368)
• United States
8 Jul 07
I am the oldest of two, and my brother wouldnt have worn my cloths. I never really wore any hand me downs, I did give some of my stuff away as hand me downs, but i dont think I was ever on the receiving end. Luck me, I know!
What religion are you?
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@jess368 (3368)
• United States
9 Jul 07
I am Christian as well, but only a few branches of Christianity wear dresses, and no make-up etc. I am pentecostal, and we dont believe that, but for a while I attended a united pentecostal church that did believe these things. This is why I am curious.
1 person likes this
@wifeofharvey (1156)
• United States
8 Jul 07
I have worn second hand and hand me downs my whole life. I just don't have a problem with it at all. I am very anti waste and just can't stand to pay out good money for some of the junk sold for high prices in the stores. I SHOP yard sales, flea markets and resale shops. I figure by basically dressing from them I have the money to spend on other things I want, lol, like the computer.
1 person likes this
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@wifeofharvey (1156)
• United States
8 Jul 07
Yes, that computer is sooooooooo important to me. I never was one who dressed in the latest fashions, for one thing that when I got 'curves' the 'Twiggy' look was in {remember her???, lol, long time ago]. I think my type figure passed on when Marilyn Monroe passed on. How about you? who was 'in' when you were young?
1 person likes this
@Rozie37 (15499)
• Turkmenistan
8 Jul 07
I know that you are so right. I like to spend my money on better things than the lastest styles or even expensive new clothes. There are so many other things to spend money on especially a computer. My computer has been the best investment into a better me that I have ever made.
1 person likes this
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@teapotmommommerced (10359)
• United States
8 Jul 07
I had to wear hand me downs, if it was not for hand me downs we would have anything. I loved hand me downs and still do.
My friends and I are all kind of the same size so twice we cleaned out our closets and brought all our our clothes we did not want or did not fit anymore to my house and had a clothes exchange. Then we had dinner. We had a great time and new clothes.
1 person likes this
@Rozie37 (15499)
• Turkmenistan
8 Jul 07
This sounds so veery special. I wish I could do that with my sisters or friends. One time though, my best friend had me clean out her closet. It was a mess, but I got a lot of new clothes and she paid me $15.00 for cleaning it. Thank God for lazy friends.
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@mcjeannie (703)
• Philippines
8 Jul 07
Hi Rozie37, I did experienced what you had...I know the feeling and I felt the same way too!There was one time my Mom promised to buy me a new clothes when I was in grade school. I told her I won't wear the hands on from my 2 older sisters(I am the third among the brood of 4).But she was so hard up catching most of our needs that her promised was broken. I can still remember how hard I cried on that time.And then of course the good clothes friom my two sisters were always handed on to me, with mother always so pleasant encouraging me they were still good clothes to wear.True enough , those handed clothes seemed to look still like new but the thought of knowing it was a hand on clothes belittles my self esteem.
Then came highschool. My Mom was so good to me...Saying she will make up ,that time she and my Dad were financially catching up so she promised to make me a gown...a new one and I can pick the style I want.It was gorgeous...!
I think she let me imbibed the value of patience...that in life, the right time to achieve certain goals in life will actually come.It takes patience(a lot) to wait though LOL!
1 person likes this
@mcjeannie (703)
• Philippines
9 Jul 07
See is and always will.She's still very alive on her early 70's...She can still go to the farm and talks to me often!
She's a gem!
@cutepenguin (6431)
• Canada
8 Jul 07
I got hand me downs from my oldest cousin. I was the oldest, so my younger sisters did get hand me downs from me.
We never really worried about it. So long as the clothes fit, we wore them. There was one dress that I had that my sister really wanted, and one day she declared it to have been handed down, even though I still wanted it, but other than that, it never really bothered us.
It helped that we did get some new clothes as presents.
1 person likes this
@patgalca (18273)
• Orangeville, Ontario
9 Jul 07
I am the youngest of 5 children. We are all fairly spread out in age so I don't think there were any hand-me-downs in my family. The next one to me is my brother who is 4 and a half years older than me. My next sister is 9 and a half years older than me. Her stuff wouldn't have stayed in the house long enough for me to get to wear them. Besides they would have been way out of style. And because of the alternating boy and girl, the age gap makes it even stronger.
My daughters are 3 years apart but my 10 year old will not wear my 14 year old's hand-me-downs simply because she doesn't like the style. She is still a tom boy so the low-rise jeans, etc. are not her style. She finds them very uncomfortable. So there is no a whole lot of hand-me-downs going on there, but their used to be when they were little, but not much.
It is interesting how you can tell they make girls clothes a little bit too girly for such a young age. For example, my 10 year old will not wear spaghetti strap, sleeveless, or even caps sleeved shirts. They all have to be boys t-shirts because girls shirts aren't made with the short sleeve anymore. She wears boys shorts too.
I have on occasion gone to the secondhand clothing store and actually you can find some nice clothes for pretty good prices. I bought myself 2 t-shirts last week for $1.99 each, and a boy's t-shirt for my daughter for $1.49. They all look brand new. Nothing wrong with those kind of second hand clothes.
1 person likes this
@lecanis (16647)
• Murfreesboro, Tennessee
8 Jul 07
I must have been a very strange child, because I loved wearing hand me downs. In fact, I would intentionally try to get my older brother's clothing whenever I could, because he always had the boy type stuff that I preferred over most girl's clothes. When I did want to wear girl-type clothing, I would love to grab random peices that didn't go together and layer them in strange ways, which always seemed to work better with old clothes as opposed to new.
I suppose for me I didn't really know any different either though, since my childhood being shuffled among family members and not being well taken care of didn't exactly afford me many options. I was more concerned with food than clothes most of the time, honestly.
1 person likes this
@Rozie37 (15499)
• Turkmenistan
8 Jul 07
It sounds like you really looked up to your older brother. There was nothing strange about wearing his clothes. That is actually real cute. Old clothes are better when you want to be comfortable.
I also understand what it feels like to not be sure where your next meal is coming from. I was also shuffled around a lot as a child. My mother passed away when I was ten and I got stuck with quite a few that did not seem to care.
1 person likes this
@CinderInMySoul (4717)
• United States
8 Jul 07
well i was the oldest, to my sister did get some hand me downs. my mom was a single mother trying to raise 2 girls in southern california..working 2 jobs just to make ends meet, so a good portion of my school clothes came from second hand stores too. never shoes or underthings. but pants especially.
it was pretty embarrassing considering what was "cool" during my middle school and parts of high school years. back then it was NOT cool to wear something "vintage" or from a thrift shop. if your clothes looked like they came from a couple of years ago, kids noticed and commented.
1 person likes this
@maddysmommy (16230)
• United States
8 Jul 07
Yup wore hand me downs and the clothes my mother made from cheap materials. Some of those clothes were "far out" and even though she tried, they didn't look all too bad. She would always make overalls which other kids use to tease us about and call them clown suits, they actually did look like clown suits in a way LOL My parents had 5 children under the age of 5 so it was tough going for sure. We wore shoes that were too tight for us and now my toes slightly bend LOL luckily no corns or anything, they just bend LOL
Once we reached Intermediate and college we wore uniform so I was so relieved and it meant less pressure on my parents to buy things for us. We each got given two sets of tops/shirts/jerseys/skirts/socks/shoes and had to wash them every other day. I took up sewing at school and made my own skirt once, but that didn't last LOL
@Rozie37 (15499)
• Turkmenistan
8 Jul 07
My mother would buy our shoes too big and then put cotton in the toe, until we grew into them. She would buy good, good shoes. I know, because try as I might, I could never tear those ugly shoes up.
I never went to a school wear I had to wear a uniform. Boy, that would have made my life so much nicer and easier.
1 person likes this
@sugarfloss (2139)
• Malaysia
8 Jul 07
I didn't have to cos sis and I,we were only 18 months apart.But we did have to wear matching clothes everytime we go out.I think I got sick of it and went around naked once.oh well,finally got out of that!hehe
1 person likes this
@Rozie37 (15499)
• Turkmenistan
8 Jul 07
My mom would sew identical dresses for us to wear on days like Christmas and Easter. Since it was so rare, I enjoye it. My sister has triplets and there are two girls and a boy. The girls got tired of dressing alike real early. They were like nine years old.
1 person likes this
@sid556 (30960)
• United States
8 Jul 07
I love 2nd hand clothes! I didn't have a sister but I always loved it when my friends would clean their closet and pass stuff my way. I do the same for them. None of us have much money to indulge in clothes. My girls all exchanged clothes with each other and with their friends. It took alot of shopping pressure off of me.
@rogue13xmen13 (14403)
• United States
9 Jul 07
Yes, I did a lot in the 1990's. My cousins would out grow their clothes and they would give them to my brother and I so we wore them. We did not care.
@dlkuku (1935)
• United States
9 Jul 07
We wore hand me downs too, I don't know what was worse, my mother dressing us in someone's cast off's, or dressing my older sister and me alike even though she is five years older than me. She would make us a lot of clothes, and they would be exactly alike. Ugh.
I guess she did her best on limited means, but it didn't help us make friends that's for sure.
1 person likes this
@CoffeeAnyone (3210)
• Canada
9 Jul 07
I don't remember being upset about wearing hand-me-downs until someone said to me, you must be poor if you have to wear your sisters clothes. After that I was self conscious about it and felt bad sometimes!
1 person likes this
@billionaire5 (1333)
• United States
9 Jul 07
No, I never had to wear hand me downs I am the oldest of three and my sister was the baby and we have never worn the same size at the same time. She is much bigger then I am.
1 person likes this
@yammydudes (865)
• Philippines
9 Jul 07
good for you rosy, you only have two sisters to hand down their used clothe. I have 7 sister who do this to me...I'm the youngest of nine siblings. I only have one brother and he is the eight...
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