Now, as my wife and probably most of society will tell you, I am not a fashionable person.  In the fall and winter, I prefer a hooded sweatshirt, typically Mets, Rangers, or Giants.  In the spring and summer, I wear t-shirts.  Again, typically the Mets.  Other than that, I have work clothes.  So I am not the person to talk to you about fashion.

However, even with that, for the life of me I don’t get how drawstrings on pants are deemed fashionable or stylish.

For those that do not know what I am talking about let me explain.  Typically, toddler boys like wearing sweatpants over jeans and the like.  As a parent, when you are heading towards or dealing with potty training, you actually want your child to have sweatpants over jeans because they are easier to get on and off.  The very last thing you want to do is discourage your child because he has trouble getting out of his pants and then has an accident.  During the potty training process, you want to minimize complications.  Jeans are a complication.  Therefore, you want sweatpants.

If your child is anything like my child, there is a big problem with sweatpants.  For my son, he has legs that are 3T (or up depending on the manufacturer) but he has a small waist that is better suited to 2T pants (he certainly doesn’t get that from me).  Initially, my wife and I were excited when we noticed that many stores sell toddler sweatpants with drawstrings.  We were fooled and irritated.

For some reason, different manufacturers glue or sew on faux drawstrings.  In essence, this means you cannot tighten your child’s pants.  While your child’s pants are falling to the ground, that drawstring just sits there mocking you.  Even more infuriating is the fact that you have already taken the tags off and washed it (yes, your toddler’s clothes needs to be washed before they wear them), you cannot return it.  Now that drawstring is sitting in the dresser laughing at you each and every time you reach in for a pair of pants that are actually functional.  Even more infuriating is the fact that when your child does grow into the waist, the pants will be halfway up his legs.

With that in mind, just do not buy a pair of pants that have a drawstring.  You need to either look for the label that says “Functional Drawstring,” of you just need to give that drawstring a tug to see if it tightens the pants.  If you do that, you will not be wasting money, and more importantly, you will have pants that actually fit your child not matter what size waist they are.