I hate this new "clothing preferences" stage

When the girls were tiny and life was hard, one of the things I really enjoyed was picking out their clothes every day. We got so many cute hand-me-downs from our nieces, I could be a clothes horse without having to buy anything. I've continued to enjoy it -- right up until they hit this stage where suddenly they have strong opinions about what they wear!

Now, Amy wants to wear a dress every day -- not that there's anything wrong with dresses (except that she skins her knees more often), but we have so many other things that never get worn! And I bought Sarah some cute new Merrells (shoes) to replace her old ones, but she won't wear them, because she prefers a pair of hand-me-down pink buckle shoes that don't fit her nearly as well. Sigh.

OK, this is just a vent. But I'm feeling sorry for myself because I used to enjoy dressing them, and now it's just one more thing to "pick your battles" about.

 

Girls! Mine are the same way and have been since about that age. I'm at the place where I refuse to buy new things unless they are there with me and approve it. I'm tired of spending money to have them never wear things!!

I'm telling everyone else to stop buying them clothes as well.

On the plus side, they are definitely little "personalities" and each has her own independent style! I've got the girly girl and the eclectic rebel!

 

It is not just girls. Since about the same time...my boys have had to pick out their clothes.

Peter...orange. only orange. sometimes yellow and pink. yup, pink. Will not wear jeans. Sometimes you can get him to wear something else besides orange but there better be something cool on it! or the wildest pattern you can imagine.

Jamison..red. prefers red but will wear a shirt if there is something cool on it like Curious George, firetruck or a dinosaur. Only wears jeans and if all jeans are dirty some canvas/tanish pants will do under protest.

Will not wear anything with a collar, or overalls. I love overalls on kids. wont touch them. Come to think of it will not wear a sweatshirt or sweater. This winter should be interesting.

Sometimes I get the looks from others like " you let your child wear what..."
But I figure...pick you battles and as long as the clothes are weather appropriate that go nuts kid!
They are easy to pick out in a crowd! I will never loose them!

 

Yes, we are having clothing battles at our house too...

Katelyn started it awhile back and now Blake occassionally has moments where he likes to voice his opinion. I tend to let it go and let them choose for the most part.

 

I am usually OK if I pick out their clothes really quick and they don't have a chance to look in the dresser or closet. If they see the rest of their clothes, then it takes forever to dress them and of course they never pick out a top and bottom that matches. If they see their tacky cat shirts, forget it. Now Bea only wants to wear these red Mary Janes which don't look good with everything.

 

QUOTE(Snittens @ Sep 14 2007, 07:10 PM) [snapback]408027[/snapback]
I am usually OK if I pick out their clothes really quick and they don't have a chance to look in the dresser or closet.


I try that too -- but Amy remembers. <_< She starts yelling "Amy dress! Amy dress!" and runs to the closest where we keep the dresses. If I try to give her something else, it's "NO SHIRT!!!!! NOOOOO SHIRT!" And I've tried just taking down 2 or 3 dresses and having her choose, but she insists on being lifted up to where she can see them all.

OTOH, I managed to fight her into a shirt & pants this morning (over her loud protests) and once she was in them, she accepted it almost instantly. So maybe I'm giving in too quickly.

But I feel like if I'm going to get away with limiting their options, I'm going to have to pick out one outfit every night for the next day, and hide all the rest of the clothes away in a locked cabinet. It's probably not worth it.

 

QUOTE
Mine are the same way and have been since about that age. I'm at the place where I refuse to buy new things unless they are there with me and approve it. I'm tired of spending money to have them never wear things!!


That's exactly what I did when my boys went through this. If nothing else, it was a money-saving phase. It's not exactly "over", but my boys are now wearing all kinds of things again. I was so excited the other day when I took them to the local consignment store to get them some soccer cleats and left with a whole bunch of clothes that we picked out together! A year ago they would have vetoed every single thing I showed them.

You will probably never again have total say over what they wear, but you will be let back in again to the process in not too long. Hang in there and try to enjoy the crazy outfits they choose

 

QUOTE(Minette @ Sep 14 2007, 03:17 PM) [snapback]408034[/snapback]
OTOH, I managed to fight her into a shirt & pants this morning (over her loud protests) and once she was in them, she accepted it almost instantly. So maybe I'm giving in too quickly.

Yeah that's how it was with Ainsley this morning. Every shirt I held up was "Noooo!!!" But then once she was dressed and at the breakfast table, she was fine. Yesterday Bea sat there in her shirt and diaper for 15 min while she had a fit because I would not let her put her red shoes on before we put pants on. Could not comprehend that yes, you will get your shoes, but AFTER pants! You just can't reason with a two year old, I am finding out. :blink:

 

I'm still in the process of running upstairs to pick out their clothes while they either watch their morning show and drink their milk or when they are in the highchairs eating bfast. So, they have no choice and don't realize yet that there are options. I never let them hang out upstairs. I do not look forward to that battle but when I get there, I am going to try my darndest to give them only 1 of 2 choices. "you can wear this or you can wear this" I know it sounds great in theory but we'll see how it really goes when we get to that point.

 

QUOTE(Minette @ Sep 14 2007, 03:17 PM) [snapback]408034[/snapback]
I try that too -- but Amy remembers. <_< She starts yelling "Amy dress! Amy dress!" and runs to the closest where we keep the dresses. If I try to give her something else, it's "NO SHIRT!!!!! NOOOOO SHIRT!" And I've tried just taking down 2 or 3 dresses and having her choose, but she insists on being lifted up to where she can see them all.

OTOH, I managed to fight her into a shirt & pants this morning (over her loud protests) and once she was in them, she accepted it almost instantly. So maybe I'm giving in too quickly.


OMG - have you been living at our house lately?!?!?!? this is EXACTLY how Alisha acts. But it seems to go in stages - for a while it was "pretty dress, pretty dress" every morning - and LOTS of angst over choosing if i let her choose which dress/ shirt she was going to wear. but, like you said, once i had had enough and picked for her and got her into clothes, she was fine.

what's been working well for us lately is that i put all their pjs in the bottom of their dresser and they get to pick through and choose their pjs - they both are loving that and alisha hasn't been picky about her clothes lately (although it helps when i talk about how pretty her shirt is )

cameron, on the other hand, could care less about how he's dressed - thank goodness!

 

In our house it is my son who is a pain to get dressed. He is very particular and would be happiest in his summer PJs all day. He gets very addicted to his PJs. This winter I am buying 5 of the same pair so that I don't have to play the laundry game with that one pair.

And I have to struggle to get him in a shirt. Any shirt. I am really looking forward to winter. :huh: What cracks me up is when I am fighting the shirt over his head he shouts "No, it's dark in here!"

Anyone want to compete in a toddler wrangling rodeo?? I am the fastest mother in the NorthEast US for wrangling a 2 year old boy into his shirt. :blink:

 

While we were having breakfast this morning and I had to make 78 trips back and forth between the table and the fridge to get things for the girls (that they told me they didn't want the first time, when I was serving to the other one), I said to my husband, "I liked it better before they could tell me what food they wanted and they either ate it or cried and got down from the table." So yeah, I feel your pain!

Mine were starting to get pretty opinionated about their clothing a few months ago, but ever since we started getting dressed while they are lying on my bed watching Dora in the morning, I can pretty much go back to putting them in whatever I want. Now they just pay no attention to me because they are too entranced by Dora. We'll see how long this phase lasts.

 

QUOTE(BettiePage @ Sep 16 2007, 02:11 AM) [snapback]409629[/snapback]
Mine were starting to get pretty opinionated about their clothing a few months ago, but ever since we started getting dressed while they are lying on my bed watching Dora in the morning, I can pretty much go back to putting them in whatever I want. Now they just pay no attention to me because they are too entranced by Dora.


That's an idea -- I bet I could dress them in anything while they were watching Big Bird, as long as I didn't impede their view of the TV.

QUOTE(Snittens)
Yesterday Bea sat there in her shirt and diaper for 15 min while she had a fit because I would not let her put her red shoes on before we put pants on. Could not comprehend that yes, you will get your shoes, but AFTER pants!

And that sounds like the fit Amy had in our vacation house, when she wanted to sit on the adult toilet without me holding on to her. I could not explain to her that if I let go of her, she would fall in. I even let her pry my hands off of her for a split second and she did, in fact, start to fall in and got scared. But somehow she interpreted that as my fault -- if I'd only let her do it HER way, that wouldn't happen! Yeesh.