We have this weird situation going on at my house right now. My youngest daughter wears the same outfit for days on end. She picks what she wants to wear and she’ll wear it all day, all night, and all the next day. Sometimes she even puts the same clothes back on again after she takes a bath.
My middle daughter, on the other hand, wears five outfits worth of clothing in one day. She changes her clothes all the time, for reasons that are all her own. And if she wears something for 5 minutes, she puts it in the hamper.
My oldest daughter is somewhere in between. She normally wears pajamas to bed, but sometimes she leaves those pajamas on for days. And I’m talking fleece long pajamas and it’s summer.
Here’s how this happened.
I used to have this idea that they had to wear pajamas every night. They had to change their clothes every day. I wanted them to look as cute as other kids that wear adorable boutique clothing with matching accessories, even though we didn’t have any of that stuff.
When they were babies we got them dressed. As they got older, we would start fighting about their clothes. They didn’t want to change. They didn’t like what we picked out. They didn’t like how things fit. We didn’t think it was appropriate for the weather. It would take forever to find something they would agree to.
But the struggle around getting them dressed wasn’t really the problem.
The real problem and the reason we were fighting is because I was letting other people’s rules dictate how I showed up as a mom, when it wasn’t even important to me.
I don’t care whether or not they wears pajamas. I don’t care if they wear the same clothes for more than one day. I wear the same clothes two days in a row all the time, so obviously I think that’s acceptable.
I decided what my standard is (they decide what to wear) and let the rest go. Now they wear what they want, when they want. We don’t fight about it and I don’t worry about what other people think about it. In fact, it’s made laundry even easier.
If getting your kids dressed is a battle, think about whether nor not it’s worth it to you.
Are you ready to figure out your own standards and let all the other rules in your head go? I can help you with that. It starts with one conversation. You tell me your struggles and how you want things to be, I’ll tell you what the real issue is and how you can get past it. Click here to book your free call.
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