3 yo stubborn about clothes

It takes soooo long to get the girls dressed in the morning! It's mainly Ainsley, but then sometimes she will set Bea off and then Bea is no longer happy with her clothing choice, and it spirals out of control. Today, we didn't get dressed until like noon (we were being lazy, sorry!) and we were only going over to my parents' so I said let's just wear a shirt and pants, nothing fancy. Ainsley wants to wear a dress or skirt and tights every single day. I don't mind that much, except tights can be a pain to deal with, and she still takes everything off to go potty, so I'm putting tights back on her multiple times a day. So this ensues into a big battle until she ended up choosing a shirt, pants, and socks that completely didn't match, but oh well. In between, we also had a battle over a shirt I had bought but didn't assign to any particular child, and they fought over it. Remind me to never just buy one shirt! It was on clearance and there wasn't another similar one in their size.
DH thinks I should just pick out their clothes and that's that. I realize I have a picky kid on my hands who clearly only likes to wear certain things, but I also would like to get some wear out of all of their clothes. Not only is it just dresses and skirts, but only a few of them. They have to be "long", she prefers knee-length or longer. But, I need getting dressed to not be so dreadful.

 

My 2 cents is as long as it is weather appropriate clothing, let her choose. I would say pick your battles, so long as it is safe, appropriate clothing - who cares if it matches! The other thing I have heard about is only putting a few things in their dresser at a time, so they can pick from what is in their drawer (perhaps this might work to get more variety into her wardrobe??).

Good luck!

 

I seperate my OCs clothes into play clothes / nice clothes and let them pick from the appropriate drawer/section of closet. I'm lucky bc we don't attend a "dressy" church so whatever is appropriate for the mall is also good for church. Sometimes I make suggestions or pull out 2 outfits and let them chose bt them if they seem to need some help deciding, or if we're in a hurry.

 

I would probably give them 2 choices and leave it at that. Ali doesn't want any tags touching her. She wants ALL tags removed and it's a pain in the bottom. We are on vacation with VERY limited clothing choices right now and it's been an issue. So, I don't have the answer, but I feel your pain!! :hug:

 

I seperate their clothes into two piles, play clothes, and school clothes (which are church and going out clothes). I have always let them pick what they want to wear. My one daugther hardly ever matches and likes to wear the same clothes over and over. So what I have done is stopped washing them so often or if I do I keep them aside and make her wear some other clothes. They both usually like to pick from the top too so if the clothes aren't rotated (clean getting put under the ones already in the drawer) then they wear them over and over again too. I don't care if their clothes match or not since it's their chose and they are expressing themselves (they are really bad sometimes with wearing stripe pants and then some other weird designed shirt) and hey it's not hurting anyone.

 

A choice of 2 usually worked great for us. Sometimes they'd suggest something the night before, and if it was weather/event appropriate, I'd go with that because we had time to lay it out in advance. The act of choosing may be more important to her than the particular outfit, so I would try giving her two things to choose from. She gets that control, but you don't have to spend all morning on it.

A choice of 2 usually worked great for us. Sometimes they'd suggest something the night before, and if it was weather/event appropriate, I'd go with that because we had time to lay it out in advance. The act of choosing may be more important to her than the particular outfit, so I would try giving her two things to choose from. She gets that control, but you don't have to spend all morning on it.

 

I also have a 'fashion diva' and I lay out 2 choices...she usually is OK with that. She also prefers dresses/tights to all other clothing....if she protests- my other DD get dressed and get 'ready' to leave (we never would but she doesnt know that) and that hurries her along.

I also try to 'ham' it up if we need something specific (dress for church, pants for messy play) and then she can be 'convinced'!LOL.

I feel your frustration!

 

If we are going someplace, I will give Meghan a choice in what she wears. If we are just hanging around, she will usually pick. I decided it wasn't worth figthing with her every time. Yesterday she actually woke me and she was already dressed! We have had a couple of times where it just escalated, but for the most part, we do okay.

The problem is now rearing it's head in that she wants to choose what her brother wears as well!! :rofl:

 

Two thoughts: 1. Pick your battles and this is not one I would choose to pick.
2. Children need independence and to learn to make decisiions in degrees. This is one place she can begin.
So basically, I would say let her pick unless it is something like professional pics where you want them to look a certain way.

 

Unless the selection is inappropriate in some way I let my girls choose their clothes.

My girls also like to wear dresses and I've found that leggings and socks are easier to deal with than tights. Good luck.

 

I've also separated the boys' clothes into play clothes and nice/school clothes. Andrew, our oldest is the most difficult when it comes to getting dressed. If he could permanently wear flannel pajama pants, he'd be in heaven!

For me, it's not a battle I feel up to fighting most days. I pull the clothes out and either they wear them or they can sit on their bed until they're ready to get dressed. With Blake, the "threat" of getting his little brothers dressed before him seems to be enough. I usually just say "okay, I'll go get Riley dressed instead" and that will help change his mind pretty quickly. This probably works better with boys, since we don't have the issue of dresses or tights. I mean really, pants or shorts is pretty straightforward. There aren't a lot of battles over whether or not they can wear a tie. :lol: They just fight me over actually putting the clothes on.

 

I hope I don't come to this.....as I have a girl/boy. I would agree, let her pick 1 of the 2 outfit that she will wear that day. I'd say leggings are the better than those tight. Also, my nails get caught in her tight, yike!

 

Hi Kelly - Alisha is VERY picky about her clothing also, and has been since she was 2, so i've been dealing with this for a while. I agree with what everyone else said.
- She isn't allowed to wear dresses to school - she knows by now that there are some clothes that she can't wear to school
- I give her a choice - if I let her pick anything from a drawer/ closet, it would take her at LEAST an hour to pick and she would go back and forth and change her mind - total nightmare. What I do is first get her to agree on what kind of thing she wants to wear that day (dress, cozy pants, sweater, whatever). Then I usually give her 3 options of whatever the thing is that she has chosen. I've also learned to lay out outfit choices - because if she just picks a shirt she likes nad then doesn't like the pants options I have selected to go with the shirt we have to start from square one. so if it's not a dress, i show her the top/bottom combos as the choice so she is picking the full outfit at once.

cameron is a bit easier, but won't wear anything with buttons (!) and would wear "cozy pants" (fleece) every day if i let him.

good luck!!!!

 

We also have drawers with play clothes and nicer clothes. Madison usually doesn't care too much, Alina likes to pick and will sometimes throw a fit about it. If we aren't going anywhere special, I usually let her, but tell her which drawer she has to pick out of. Mine, Alina especially, can also REALLY drag out the getting ready experience.

I don't think I would actually go through the trouble of doing this, but one cute idea I saw in a parenting magazine one time was, if your child dresses themselves and doesn't match AT ALL, make them a button that says, "I dressed myself today!" They're proud and people don't look at mommy as weirdly.

 

I have to say, my boys preference for only 1 thing sounds a whole lot easier to deal with than the changing outfits all day long!

In your position, I would definitely limit the options. Pick out 5-6 outfits that she will wear and put the rest away.

Good luck!

 

I let the kids pick their clothes. They must be activity appropriate and weather appropriate. On the weather thing, I was willing to let Sarah get cold a few times so that she could learn that when mommy suggested a heavy pair of jeans, it wasn't to hear myself talk. She loves skirts and dresses. Children's Place has had some skirts in the past that were longer and a little heavier. And for those, to make them last even longer, I just buy them much bigger and pull in the button waist. The ones she is wearing right now are actually a size 8, but since they are just ruffled tier skirts, I think they look better long instead of barely to the knee. And then we invested in a pile of cute knee socks. She has ballerina ones, horse ones, and just crazy pattern ones and loves them. I fight my battles at the store. I take her shopping because it was starting to turn into a battle. I can tell at the store whether she'll wear things or not.

Marissa

 

I let them have their way completely, as long as it's weather-appropriate. Amy is in a phase (for once it's Amy being like Ainsley, rather than Sarah!) where she wants to wear dresses and tights every single day. Fortunately at least she manages going potty with tights on very well all by herself. She also always wants to bring an extra pair of tights wherever we go, in case she has an accident (which almost never happens) or they get wet or dirty some other way.

Sarah is not set on any one particular outfit or style, but will pick the most atrocious combinations. I can sometimes make a gentle suggestion and she will go with it, but if she insists, I give in rapidly.

I'm also willing to let them be cold once in a while, as a learning experience. Not if we're going outside to play, but just if we're walking to the car.

The nice thing is that they will both pick out their clothes entirely by themselves. Amy will even get herself completely dressed (sometimes) -- she just walks away in her PJs and comes back with clothes on. That's a miracle, so I'm not going to complain about her choices.

 

I generally pick out two outfits per child (or one pair of pants and two shirts) and let them choose from there. Anything else would take forever! Good luck!

 

Thanks for some of the suggestions, and also The Children's Place tip for skirts! I did buy a bunch of leggings because of her love for dresses and skirts, in anticipation of the winter, but now she doesn't want leggings, only tights!
I normally don't care what she wears, and don't care if it matches, but there are some occasions when yes, I want her to look nice (maybe that's why this was coming to a head, because we had a bunch of Christmas events and I had outfits I wanted them to wear), and sometimes a dress and tights are just not appropriate. I would really rather that she wear a shirt and pants to preschool, as they always get messy and they go on the playground, and I want it to be easier for her to go potty.

OK, here's a problem about setting a few choices out for her - She will just go in the drawers/closet herself and pull other things out! So if I set out a couple of pants/shirt options, she will still go in the closet and pick out a dress.

 

We have "nice" clothing hanging in the closet. "play" clothing gets folded and put into drawers. It works this way for all family members (even DH who sometimes doesn't know what's appropriate to wear when going out to dinner versus doing house projects. some men just don't care. So I put this "rule" in place long b4 the girls were born).

The girls can get into the drawers and pick out clothing. I personally like when they choose the same stuff over and over again - atleast I mostly know what to expect. And if it's cheap enough, I'll buy multiples of the same pants or shirts. Anyway, it's kinda like a uniform. Sometimes less choices is better. Most of our "play" clothing is hand me downs, 2nd hand or inexpensive or stuff they are growing out of, or have already ruined.

As for the tights..... If she is potty trained, but can't do the tights solo, then you might need to enforce a new rule. Either she a. doesn't take off tights all the way off each time or b. chooses leggings instead. She's old enough to understand that.

As for the closet door, we have a lock on the upper part of the door. So if we don't want them getting in there and making a mess, they simply can't get in. period.

Also, my girls are mostly color coded. Samantha wears pink. Sydney wears purple. So they rarely fight over clothes. And I rarely buy other colors, because then it's just confusing. Of course, I do this mostly for the benefit of teachers, friends, etc. I personally think my girls look totally different, but I can see why someone could confuse them - they are ID.

 

QUOTE
A choice of 2 usually worked great for us. Sometimes they'd suggest something the night before, and if it was weather/event appropriate, I'd go with that because we had time to lay it out in advance. The act of choosing may be more important to her than the particular outfit, so I would try giving her two things to choose from. She gets that control, but you don't have to spend all morning on it.


Worked for us also. Still does.