Tall & Skinny

We are about to cross a threshold with the second of our children.  Soon, we will be shopping for clothing for our middlest child in the men's department.

It's traumatic, this switch, even though we planned it from before he was born.  After all, our goal is and has always been to grow our babies into men, and having to buy man-sized clothes for him is a natural consequence of our success.

But.  Does it have to happen now?  He's not even 12, which is when most attractions, restaurants, and over the counter medicines will consider him an adult. He's my baby.  My baby is almost big enough to have to buy pants based on waist and inseam measurements.

Currently, my middlest baby is wearing boys size 14ish.  Except size 14 is too big in the waist and too short in length.  It became glaringly obvious last Sunday that the boy needs some new clothes.

Did you know that boys size 14 is the same as a 28 inch waist, 28 inch inseam?  Yeah, I didn't know that either, until last year (just last year!  How is it that we were able to wait until our first was 14 to make our first foray into the men's department, and now we're staring it down with our second at 11? How is that fair?) when I was shopping for my oldest baby in the men's department, looking for a 29x30.  Sure enough, I found a pair of dual purpose pants that were both size 28x28 and size 14.

Are you seeing the issue here?  Maybe not.  You wouldn't, unless you were also someone responsible for buying clothing for a tall and skinny boy-man.

The man-clothes start with a 28 inch waist, which is too big.  The boys clothes have equal waist and inseam measurements, and a 28 inch inseam is too short.  So we if we go up to boy size 16 (or 30x30, in man-clothes terms) we will have a long enough inseam, but the waist will be even more too big.

Yesterday I had my boy try on the aforementioned 29x30s that his older brother has since outgrown.  Perfect length.  Waaaaay too roomy around the middle.

We have a couple of choices. Invest in a few good belts.  Or go with the clothing world's secret weapon: the adjustable waist.  Or, I suppose there's always the option to hire a tailor. I shudder at the thought for commishing clothes that will be outgrown within a year.  Take on the clothing industry and make them manufacture men's pants with smaller waist measurements?  I digress.

I think, for now, MC has chosen to go the adjustable waistband route, cinching his size 16 pants, through the magic of elastic and well-placed buttons, down the required 4 or so inches necessary to keep his pants up.

We've dodged the men's department bullet for now with this one.  But it's only a matter of time.