wanting to change clothes

Hi all! My girls will be 3 in July. I have one who cries almost every time ... like 99.9% of the time that I take her PJs off to get her dressed if we have to go somewhere. I may have set myself up for this because I have not been routine about getting them dressed every morning ... like if we have no plans then I just let them wear their PJs because they always want back in them for nap anyway ... so what would be the point, right? Well, now I have learned that with a 2.5 year old you give them an inch and they take a mile. So, now, when we have to go somewhere it is a battle to get her dressed (usually I hold her writhing little body down while I force her clothes on then she cries in the floor of her room for 20 minutes) and either way, whether in her clothes or in her PJs ... she wants to change her clothes 100 times a day! By 8:30 this morning, she already had on a different PJ shirt than she wore to bed and 4 different pairs of PJ pants ... then, we put on clothes because they wanted to go play outside. Well, she started throwing a fit because I put her clothes on and wanted back in her PJs and when I said no she proceeded to cry in her room for an hour ... over an hour really. I know this is a quest for independance and probably not about the clothes ... but oh my goodness it drives me up a wall. Any suggestions? I guess I just need to fight this battle ... get them dressed every AM and put PJs on only when we are going to bed?? What do you all think? I fear once we solve this, it will only be something else ... either with her or with her sister ... man, what a hard age!

 

It's a fun age, isn't it? Cricket used to ask ten million times a day to change her clothes - it was a phase that lasted about two long months. As for your specific situation and questions... I'd probably talk to your girls a lot for a few days about how on Saturday (or whatever day you want), you're going to start changing into clothes first thing in the morning and then staying in those clothes until bedtime. Then stick to it. No PJs at naptime. No giving in and changing clothes at 9am. Perhaps give your girls a choice of two shirts, or let them pick their socks so they feel like they're part of the process. I started doing that and I had fewer protests about putting on clothes.

 

I think in this case that probably getting them dressed in the morning for a while until they move past this stage would be best. I agree with giving them the initial choice then telling them that there is no more changing unless they ask mommy first...or something along those lines. I do think it's just a stage, my girls went through it to and still from time to time change their clothes multiple times a day. I am more linient about it now and just tell them to make sure they put their clothes back in the drawer once they change, or into the hamper if they are dirty.

 

Keep in mind my twins age (we are not quite there yet) but could you have a box downstairs of a few cloth items and they can take on and off (THEY TAKE ON & OFF NOT YOU) and make sure they put all clothes back into the box ??? This would at least give them lots of practice of dressing and undressing. This way you can choose easy clothes for them to wear, non- p.j. clothes, and season appropriate clothes. Plus it limits the number of clothes. This is what you can choose from & mommy is not helping you. (much)


Heather