Ask Sherry: Where I buy Little Bun’s Clothes

You asked, and I am answering every Friday once I have enough questions!

You can ask any question using the form here.

Where do you buy Little Bun’s clothes?

Where they be CHEAPEST!…

Just kidding. Sort of…

When I was at home with Little Bun, I would go to thrift stores and scour the racks for pants and things I think he would like to wear that were in good condition. You’d be surprised how many items were there that looked brand new. Kids just don’t wear out their clothes before shooting up like weeds!

For underwear and plain white tees for the house, I go to Wal-mart.

Aside from thrifting which I no longer have time for, I now go online, and my favourite store is Mini Mioche.

He loooooves the clothes from there. Super soft, organic cotton, and his striped pants are worn SO MUCH that they have huge holes in them and I don’t give AF any more. He wears them as-is, with holes….

In Montreal, my favourite kids’ store is Bagnoles et Bobinette. They just recently revamped the store, and when I am in Old Montreal, I like to drop by and see what kids toys there are, but now they have a kids CLOTHING section which is super adorable.

In general, I drop by Winners, and even The Bay to check out the sale racks. There are some things I can’t buy in those stores like snow suits, or snow pants, and those are my default places to check.

Lately though I have been just begging friends and family to give me their clothing. I just take all their hand-me-downs.

What do you think are the most useful languages to speak as native or first languages?

English, Spanish, and French.

English being #1 of course. I am not biased as a native English-speaker either because our world is so global that if you don’t speak English you are at a major disadvantage.

Only now, are family members who have grown up (his cousins, nephews, nieces)… are all regretting they didn’t spend MORE time speaking in English to me to practice because they are having a tough time getting into jobs and colleges that require fluency in English.

As for French and Spanish, you can use them in major countries around the world, I find it very useful to know one so you can pick up the other easily (I am going to start learning Spanish I think, now that French is mastered enough to be able to converse).

Also, would you have liked to learn (what I consider) a hard language like Dutch/Swedish/Danish/German if you lived as a foreigner, for a longer period (5+ years) or indefinite period, in the country where that language is spoken?

Arabic, German, Chinese, or Russian. Goodness me, those languages are tough. I don’t even want to attempt them to be honest.

And last, would you have liked your child to learn that language at school as a first/study language given that international schools are rather expensive? Thank you.

You mean Arabic, German, Chinese or Russian? No.

I’d like his primary school language now, to be in French since his primary (mother) tongue is English at home.

French is much harder to learn in terms of verb conjugations, le, la.. than English. In English you can mash together words and it makes sense enough to converse but in French? OMG NO.

Honestly, I’d have liked to have lived in Switzerland where they learn a multitude of languages very easily. They seem to be incredible for languages because it is a given that they have to learn multiple ones, and there’s no choice.

In Canada, we “learn” two languages. In reality, we only learn one unless your parents speak English at home like we do, and Little Bun will learn French in school and grow up perfectly bilingual.

Otherwise, forget it.

Most people in English provinces only speak English, and in Quebec you will find most people speak mostly French. There are some who are (in both provinces) truly bilingual like we are, but to achieve that level, you need parents at home to enforce it.

What I really admire is having parents at home who each speak a different language and then the kids learn English and/or French in daycares and schools with friends. Can you imagine? A quad-lingual child? How wonderful!!

Now that I know English and French, the next useful language for me would be Spanish as many people at the office speak it as their native tongue. I’d love to practice it, and it would be useful in the United States.

Still have a burning question?

You can ask any question using the form here and all of my previous Ask Sherry posts are here.