More and more often Grandparents are taking over the role as parents in today’s society. A lot of parents are either parents at such a young age that the grandparents step in to help, or the grandparents are there to help a single mom or dad take care of the kids, or even grandparents are just there because both parents have to work full time, and so the responsibilty may shift over to them. Households in today’s society are combining a lot more where parents come to live with their children just to make ends meet or vice versa. At any rate a lot of Grandparents are now taking over the responsibilities of getting kids up and ready for school, preparing lunches, and making sure children have what they need for school.

Grandparents should try and stay up to date with the latest trends in clothing and school supplies if this becomes their new role. To help them out, I have come up with a Back to School grandparent tip list to help them survive Back to School season!

Tips:

1. If you are new to this role this year, and/or do not care to stay up to par with the latest trends and fashions, just keep these in the back of your mind when helping to do the school shopping:

• Grandkids  WILL show you what is the latest fashion trend, but you don’t have to totally follow it

1. If it is too short
2. If it is see -thru
3. if it is too tight
4. If it leaves part of them bare anywhere

THEN DON’T Allow them to get it !!! If you aren’t sure still, especially as to graphics on t-shirts, refer to school handbooks, they will usually ban profanity, nudity, anything promoting drinking or smoking, they also give guidelines on what is considered too short, or hazzardous. Flimsy footwear is also prohibited, so don’t send them to school in flip flops.

• Before shopping, go through the kids closets, take inventory and see what they can still wear again this year, and what is too small or no longer age appropriate. You may not need to buy as much as you thought. This is also a good time to see if you think those winter coats and boots will still fit or not, so you can keep this in mind for the future.
• Set a budget !!! Today’s times are hard enough, and you want to be able to get the biggest bang for your buck !
  
• Shop for quality !!! Look for great deals on quality items, sometimes spending a bit more for things like a backpack is a better purchase. Backpacks that will break and need replaced will just cost more in the long run. I suggest cloth backpacks over plastic, sure plastic is cute and may have the kids favorite show theme on it, but will it last ? in my experience no, cloth ones are more durable. Try suggesting they get a favorite color in this dept.
• BACK TO BASICS – basic items are usually better to buy, t -shirts and denim jeans or skirts are going to go a longer way then a bunch of dresses. You can mix and match more outfits this way. Plus kids tend to usually wear t -shirts more often.
  
• Allow maybe one favorite outfit/ special outfit for the first day of school – to get the biggest bang, try and see if you can find something that can be mix/matched with something else too
• comfort, spend more time choosing comfortable clothes and shoes, if they only wear it a couple times because it isn’t comfortable then it is probably not worth buying.
  
• Also, keep in mind layers, a lot of schools can be too hot or too cold at times. buying a light jacket or sweater may help with this, that way they can take it on and off throughout the day.
• Older brothers/Sisters  don’t be afraid of hand me downs, things like jeans and popular tv characters sometimes can stay in style for a few years straight. If they are not in bad condition consider wearing them on your younger children/grandchildren this year.
  
• Save Money where you can – usually younger children don’t even care too much about what they wear, shop at thrift stores and yard sales for some of their clothes, and while your there, you may even find some treasures for older children too! If you make it fun to go to these places to “find treasures” kids may not be so picky that they get some of their clothing there.
  

I hope these tips help grandparents, and even parents when shopping for back to school clothing.

post 3/6 in the Back to School series!!!

The Plus Size Mommy

About This Post

It’s back-to-school time, and this year Sprite and TwitterMoms have partnered with bloggers like me to share back-to-school tips and tricks, advice, stories and more! Visit Sprite’s back-to-school channel on TwitterMoms to get helpful ideas, learn how to survive the back to school rush, seek out advice from other TwitterMoms and join the conversation. You can learn more about donating your My Coke Rewards Points to support your local school, how to enter for a chance to win some Back to School cash, check out recipes, or even play some fun games. Here’s to a successful and stress-free back to school season from Sprite and TwitterMoms!