WHY SO LITTLE CLOTHING CHOICE FOR BOYS?

I have always loved buying clothes for my boys as they have been growing up, even before they were born I adored scouring the baby clothes section of stores. My Mum would always roll her eyes at me and tell me that 'they have enough', but the pieces at home never seem to compare when you're looking at all the beautiful bits in front of you right? It doesn't matter how many cute jumpers they might have, I just have to grab that one more. However the older the boys have become, the less enjoyable I've found shopping for them, I find it more difficult with each new season because the clothing on offer for little boys just isn't up to scratch, especially when you compare it to that for little girls.

When I go into the clothing section of stores it's always pretty apparent from the start which side will be dedicated to boys, it's the smaller side. It doesn't really matter if I'm shopping in Asda or in Zara, the section that is clearly labelled for boys is always noticeably smaller. This was truly something I never noticed before I had my boys and whilst I'm someone that will happily grab things from the girls section if I like them, I still find it super frustrating. I know there are more 'options' for girls, for example there are dresses, more accessories for their hair etc, but it still doesn't justify the massive difference in selection.

The annoyance doesn't stop there for me, I can almost handle having less to choose from if there is a wide variety, I think Next are my favourite store for this as there really is something for every kind of little lad. But more and more there seem to be two main themes for boys, dinosaurs or cars and well if you aren't into those then sorry but there's not much else going on. Both of my two haven't really bothered with Dinos at all, sure they love their vehicles and are tractor, digger and all things construction mad, but do I want that plastered across every tee with some form of 'brum brum' slogan, definitely not. The same goes for character clothing, a lot is based around Paw Patrol or Pj Masks which again, both my boys enjoyed but am I going to be dressing them head to toe? No. There just isn't that much variety

I notice such a difference in what was available for boys as babies, compared to now when I shop for 2-5 year olds, I know dressing boys isn't always easy and I'm probably a little bias as I don't have a little girl to dress but it can seem more 'fun' to pick clothes for girls, but that still irks me when I see almost double the amount of clothing for them to choose from compared to boys. Just recently I went into Monsoon, it's great for holiday clothing for my two and always has some cute funky shirts, previously there would be one stand for boys compared to the four for girls, but now they're reduced it to simply two items of clothing for boys, two!! When I actually asked the store where all the boys stuff had gone, hoping perhaps they were restocking or having a reshuffle, I was told that the store was ladies wear and that's why the boys section was so small. An absolutely baffling answer given I wouldn't walk into Burtons and find just clothing for boys would I? It seemed ludicrous to me.

I'm not out here saying that all shops must stock equal amounts for both genders, but do I think there should be a fairer share amongst them? Absolutely. I don't find the difference when shopping online as obvious but perhaps that's because the clothes aren't physically laid out in front of your eyes to see?