God knows I spent enough of my childhood wearing handmedowns. Of the new clothes I got: hmmm, a nice summer outfit instead of a confirmation dress when I was 12 (cos I said to my parents that I was quite happy to borrow a friend's and frankly, I didn't want another dress of that type), and I *think* I once got something new for school uniform for my first secondary school.

I was 14 before I started getting my own clothes and a lot of those were new school uniform (and even then, a *big* chunk of that originally belonged to a friend's daughter who'd attended the same school).

Had my parents divvied up a pony (and I think they seriously considered it at one point), my sisters would not have objected much, any more than I did when they got big pressies occasionally.