Thursday, October 12, 2006

Dresses

My daughter panics at the thought of dresses.

She loves to pick out her clothes and the outfit usually involves a t-shirt and leggings or tights. You should see her face as she rubs her hands over her legs in tights. The oh-its-smooth look.

Her favorite shoes are bright red and too small for her feet. Add patterned socks and she's pretty much a visual mess but inside very, very happy.

My aunt told me during a recent visit that she wishes she had let her daughter pick her clothes more often. As a mother in the 1960's she worked hard to have my cousin in hand-smocked dresses and pretty outfits.

A few days later my mother declared "Who would let a 2-year-old pick out her clothes?" with that sting only a mother can pull off.

So I put my daughter in a dress last week since we were seeing a friend of mine for the first time in over a year and I certainly wouldn't let a 2-year-old pick her clothes. She fought a hard and strong fight while getting the dress on. Then she ran to a wall, crouched into a ball and sobbed - heaving, gut-wrenching sobs - as she pulled and tugged at the dress. I promptly scooped her up, apologized over and over, and took off the dress. She wore a t-shirt for the visit.

I promised her then and there that she can pick her clothes. I'll make sure there are layers when appropriate so she doesn't catch pneumonia. A dress doesn't have to go on her body until she wants to wear one.

And she is the most stylish, forward thinking dresser in the family.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

That’s a cute post. My son did the same thing. Most days he wants to pick out his own clothes since the time he was just a toddler. He spent most of year 2 and 3 in superman pajamas. My mom thought it was Horrible. We made sure he had 3 sets so he always had a clean one to wear. Even got his pictures taken in them. Why because I feel that is who he was. He was opinionated and knew what he wanted. Now age 7 in second grade he wears dress shirts and suits at least once a week to school on his own. He says he likes to look nice for his teacher.

Scribbit said...

Oh my girl is all about dresses but I can't get her to sit properly with one on. It's panties all over the place and she's not catching on to the whole concept. Oh, and she doesn't like tights, which would be a great solution.

Anonymous said...

For what it's worth, I've got the same Mom as Allison and I like to think she raised me to be decent dresser, I was even named one of my college's "Best Dressed".

I don't think her telling me what to wear at two negatively impacted my emerging sense of style.