Elizabeth, age 7, has realized that 2-piece swimsuits are unacceptable without skirts. I say “realized” instead of “decreed” or “decided” or “declared,” because that is how it seems to her: that she has become aware of a fact, not that she has made a rule or experienced an opinion. Luckily I bought her swimsuits on clearance last year for $3-4 each, so it doesn’t really matter that THEY ARE A TOTAL LOSS. Also luckily, this is the time of year swimsuits start to go on sale/clearance.

But this means I had a very particular quest: a 2-piece swimsuit that meets my guidelines for little-girl suits (the usual “It should look as if it were made for a LITTLE GIRL”) and also HER revised-and-updated guidelines for suits (the two pieces of the suit shouldn’t show much skin between them, if any, and the bottom needs to be skirted or to have a skirt add-on).

It spoils the suspense to go right to the one I bought, but so be it:

Xhiliaration 3-piece tankini set (photo from Target.com). Bonus: I think that skirt will go with one of the non-skirted 2-piece suits I bought her before I knew The Fact.

If I hadn’t found The Perfect Suit and ordered it already, I would have asked her about this Old Navy Halter Tankini (photo from OldNavy.com). I don’t know what her ruling on a shorts-style swimsuit would be.

This Gymboree Cherry Tankini (photo from Gymboree.com) is so cute I almost wish I hadn’t already ordered the Target one.

I usually forget to look at Sears—but as it turns out, they have MANY 3-piece swimsuit sets. I got lost for awhile looking at all of them, when I was just supposed to be finding an example for the post (photo from Sears.com).

Kohl’s is another place I don’t think to look and then it’s like “WHY DO I FORGET TO LOOK HERE??” There was a different suit I preferred to the one I chose to picture here (ZeroXposur Striped 3-piece tankini set, photo from Kohls.com), because the one I preferred (ZeroXposur Daisy 4-piece tankini set) was shown on a model, as were most of the 7-16-size suits, and that felt like a new level of using a site’s photos in my post.

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Now watch: I’ll stock up on THIS year’s clearances, and I’ll be sooo careful to get only skirted tankinis, and NEXT year’s “realization of unacceptability” will be something completely different. My years of buying ahead to save money may be nearing their end.

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