How you dress your child is always a matter of personal taste. I choose to dress Littlelish in the way I do probably as an extension of my own style. I’m a bit of a tomboy who likes quirky street style but with a penchant for pretty dresses and chunky jewellery. As a mother I steered away from pink when Littlelish was a baby. These days (nearly 3) there is not much getting around the fact that it is her favourite colour along with purple, white and gold (?!) but we’ve explained that boys can like girls colours and girls can like boys colours and I think she gets it! She wears every colour of the rainbow.

It’s not that I’m against pink per se it is more the whole message that comes wrapped up in the pink paper! If you are a girl, you like pink, you wear pink clothes, you play with pink toys which nine times out of ten are princesses / fairy / mummy related. And again I have no problem with Littlelish playing fairies, princesses or mummies (which she loves to do) but then she also plays dentist, doctor, zoo keeper, pirate – whatever her heart desires. This is where my problem lies,  the dreams of little girls. What are we encouraging our daughters to aspire to? Princesses? Fairies? Ok so they get to float around, look pretty, be swept off their feet and maybe do a spell or two (could be fun)…Why do boys get to have all the adventures as explorers?

I would never tell anyone how to dress their child but I do think children should, on an average day, wear comfy clothes that they can play in, run in, jump in. Littlelish can often be seen running around in a pair of jeans and a cool tshirt. There has always been plenty of media coverage on the topic of age appropriate childrenswear especially since back in 2010 Primark featured their ‘Future Footballers wife’ slogan t shirt in store. Sure, it said in jest, dear god I hope it is said in jest but really what kind of inspiration is this for our girls? To be a wife? I’m also not saying we should push all our daughters to be brain surgeons, happiness comes first, but let’s just let them find their own way.

Personally I love a good slogan t shirt but prefer something a bit more age appropriate like these cute t shirts from Lands’ End. Their childrenswear starts from age 3-4 which just fits Littelish and it is great. I’ve found it is always excellent quality as well as being trendy, robust clothing that she can leap/scoot/dance/run around in and it stays good wash after wash. I was crazy about their jodhpurs from last season and we got compliments every time she wore them. I’m definitely going to be investing in these cute slogan tees, which one to choose? Berry Happy, Orange you glad we’re friends or Grape friends hang out! Quirky, fun, full of life and happiness just like kids.