This post is dedicated to getting dressed. I hate it. I don't mind getting myself dressed in the morning, but I hate getting my children dressed - I HATE IT - it is the absolute worst part of my day, every day, sometimes several times a day depending on how many soiled or leaky diapers I have to change. Here is my story:
Every morning I feed my children, nurse baby T, slurp down some coffee (and hopefully some toast), and then start what can at times become an hour long process - the dreaded clothing wars. I usually start with T simply because his clothes are upstairs and because he is the easiest target. T is at that awful roll over as soon as I lay him down to change him stage. We have some serious wrestling matches, and it seems like he always wins. You would think that after three babies I would have figured out how to change a very mobile almost one year old, but I haven't. It takes me about fifteen minutes to change just T and by the time I am done I have worked up a serious sweat. Who needs to go running when you have a baby to change? And of course, the process has to be repeated several times throughout the day for diaper changes. Even the thought of it makes me cringe.
So, now I am sweaty trying to work up the energy to fight the big boys. I head downstairs to get the boys out of their urine soaked garments, wondering the whole time why anyone would want to run around in wet, smelly clothes - it just doesn't seem to bother them at all. E hates to get dressed because he has a pajama fetish. I'm not sure when it started exactly, but I have a feeling it was after we inherited a lot of cool (Buzz Lightyear) jammies from our neighbors last summer. E kind of fell in love with them, so he runs away and hides, and then whines and complains in an ever increasingly high loud voice about wanting to keep his jammies on. I usually have to bribe him with a better (clean) pair of jammies to put on instead. His teachers are used to him coming to class in his pajamas - and they told me to just let the phase pass. I still feel like a slobby failure of a mother who can't even get her child dressed in the morning.
And then there is my oldest and most opinionated child - it takes a war every morning to get him dressed. I don't think his problem is that he likes his jammies so much (although he really does like the Batman ones with the cape), but more of that he just hates to stop whatever he is immersed in to get dressed. Today I didn't feel like fighting it. I told him if he put on his underwear and jeans he could keep his Spiderman pajama top on (it still actually smelled clean so it was good enough for me). I didn't think any more about it until I got him to school and was helping him to hang up his backpack and coat. He looked down at his shirt, his eyes opened really wide, and he covered himself back up with his coat. He tells me, "Look what we forgot!" He was so horribly embarrassed about having his pajama top on. "You have to go home and get me a daytime shirt!" he tells me. I don't think so buddy. So we stood there in a stand off. He, refusing to go any further in his state of undress, me, refusing to bail him out of this situation when it was his decision not to get dressed in the morning in the first place. His best friend, Connor came walking up just then, and Connor's mom asked me, "Does M not want to go to school today either?" I explained the problem and she had a solution. She lent M one of Connor's extra shirts (see, a good mom packs extra clothes in the kid's backpack). M was thrilled and spent the rest of the day talking about the great shirt that his friend let him keep forever (I may need to explain the term borrow to him).
After I had some time to reflect on the whole thing I had two thoughts: First, I think I saw the birth of a new emotion in M- I have never known him to be embarrassed before. That was interesting to me. Second, I do think M learned his lesson. It is embarrassing to go to school without your clothes on (consider how everyone has the showing up at school naked nightmare). Now I can remind him of that when he refuses to get dressed. Then I will only have to fight two kids every morning. Does anyone have any suggestions for me? I am tired of the clothing wars.
Every morning I feed my children, nurse baby T, slurp down some coffee (and hopefully some toast), and then start what can at times become an hour long process - the dreaded clothing wars. I usually start with T simply because his clothes are upstairs and because he is the easiest target. T is at that awful roll over as soon as I lay him down to change him stage. We have some serious wrestling matches, and it seems like he always wins. You would think that after three babies I would have figured out how to change a very mobile almost one year old, but I haven't. It takes me about fifteen minutes to change just T and by the time I am done I have worked up a serious sweat. Who needs to go running when you have a baby to change? And of course, the process has to be repeated several times throughout the day for diaper changes. Even the thought of it makes me cringe.
So, now I am sweaty trying to work up the energy to fight the big boys. I head downstairs to get the boys out of their urine soaked garments, wondering the whole time why anyone would want to run around in wet, smelly clothes - it just doesn't seem to bother them at all. E hates to get dressed because he has a pajama fetish. I'm not sure when it started exactly, but I have a feeling it was after we inherited a lot of cool (Buzz Lightyear) jammies from our neighbors last summer. E kind of fell in love with them, so he runs away and hides, and then whines and complains in an ever increasingly high loud voice about wanting to keep his jammies on. I usually have to bribe him with a better (clean) pair of jammies to put on instead. His teachers are used to him coming to class in his pajamas - and they told me to just let the phase pass. I still feel like a slobby failure of a mother who can't even get her child dressed in the morning.
And then there is my oldest and most opinionated child - it takes a war every morning to get him dressed. I don't think his problem is that he likes his jammies so much (although he really does like the Batman ones with the cape), but more of that he just hates to stop whatever he is immersed in to get dressed. Today I didn't feel like fighting it. I told him if he put on his underwear and jeans he could keep his Spiderman pajama top on (it still actually smelled clean so it was good enough for me). I didn't think any more about it until I got him to school and was helping him to hang up his backpack and coat. He looked down at his shirt, his eyes opened really wide, and he covered himself back up with his coat. He tells me, "Look what we forgot!" He was so horribly embarrassed about having his pajama top on. "You have to go home and get me a daytime shirt!" he tells me. I don't think so buddy. So we stood there in a stand off. He, refusing to go any further in his state of undress, me, refusing to bail him out of this situation when it was his decision not to get dressed in the morning in the first place. His best friend, Connor came walking up just then, and Connor's mom asked me, "Does M not want to go to school today either?" I explained the problem and she had a solution. She lent M one of Connor's extra shirts (see, a good mom packs extra clothes in the kid's backpack). M was thrilled and spent the rest of the day talking about the great shirt that his friend let him keep forever (I may need to explain the term borrow to him).
After I had some time to reflect on the whole thing I had two thoughts: First, I think I saw the birth of a new emotion in M- I have never known him to be embarrassed before. That was interesting to me. Second, I do think M learned his lesson. It is embarrassing to go to school without your clothes on (consider how everyone has the showing up at school naked nightmare). Now I can remind him of that when he refuses to get dressed. Then I will only have to fight two kids every morning. Does anyone have any suggestions for me? I am tired of the clothing wars.
1 comment:
Laura and Melissa are the pajama queens at our house. Luckilly, Laura does not attend preschool, so most days(5 of 7) she gets to stay in her beloved pj's all day long. We have a strict rule that if they want to come with us somewhere, they need to be dressed in real clothes....if not, they stay behind at home. You could pick anything motivating for your boys: perhaps they can pick a DVD to watch, computer game to play, or a box of toys to play with, only AFTER they get dressed. The trick is to make it NOT an option to stay in their pj's all day, but to present it in a way that it seems like they are the ones making the choice. Parent trickery!!! Haha!
Post a Comment