Wardrobes and the dream of tear-free mornings

Anyone else pulling their hair out getting your child dressed for school…

It happened all last year, so I don't know why I am surprised that it happen again. We even went to great lengths to pick out clothes the night before, and lay them out …I mean, how easy is that?!  But a girl can change her mind, I guess, and my daughter does. We use to go through such drama in our house by 7:30 a.m. that I considered invest ing in a morning wine.  

Playing it cool was the only thing I can do. I once threatened to drop her at school naked, but deep down I knew that could get me arrested, so I caved and we were 30 minutes late for class.  I feel for her, I do. She'd get so worked up about picking out the "perfect" outfit. I try to stay out of it because whatever I choose, she can't stand.  Sometimes I purposefully pick the things I don't want her to wear for that reason. OOps my secret is out. 

This year, I made it my mission to nip this before it started.  Only, I wasn't quite sure how, but I took a shot at it. Here was my Plan A:

Plan A: set out the first 3 days of outfits on Sunday. I'm even decorated some cute hangers that represent the days of the week.  Once the outfit is on the hanger, there is no changing. Clothes that get laid out but not worn are banned from wearing for a week. I feel like she’s just not of sound mind at 7 a.m. to make such a big decision, so doing it at night will really help her (err, ME).

And, if she doesn't wear the outfit she picks out OR causes a fuss, I have no choice but to take the outfit and put it in the No Wearing closet for a week.  Let's hope she doesn't do it too often, her entire wardrobe might be banned, and then she would have to wear her brother's.  Of course, when she gets her clothes on without the drama, I figure out ways to reward her.  Ideas are welcome. 

So far, this mission is working.  In fact, she has done amazing and we have only missed the bus once...and it wasn't because of her...it was her brother wanting different shoes on.So far, goal FOR HAVING happIER mornings with my kids, check! Now if I could just ask them once (alright, twice) to get their shoes on and eat their breakfast. But at least the "getting dressed" part has become almost tear free.  Cheers!

Cleaning out the closet

I must confess, my daughter has too many clothes. Most of them weren’t bought by me,  as we have wonderful hand-me-downs, and we both love them! Hand-me-downs were my favorite when I was little and my daughter shares that, her excitement for them is immeasurable. She’s also a bit of a pack-rat, like me. Thus, Too many clothes equal Too Many Choices, which equals a meltdown before 8 a.m. every day.  That is going to change this year…or at least I'm doing everything I can to change it.

Skye started Kindergarten this year.  So, the week before school officially began, I made a date with her to go through her closet. It was almost a mini-shopping spree as we tried on all her clothes. I had a two-fold plan: 

1. Weed out the clothes she had outgrown
2. Commit to wearing what we were going to keep.

My daughter was a trooper and tried on everything I asked her to.  We celebrated when pants were too small, cheering because she had "grown SO much".  We made several piles…the keepers, the hand-me-down givebacks, and the giveaways.  She wanted a fourth pile that she could sell at our garage sale, but I convinced her we should give them away.  

It was tough to convince her to give away a few items that she LOVED, but in the end I told her we needed too so we could buy new school clothes.  That worked like a charm, and I was delighted.  It was a smooth process with absolutely no meltdowns. Only  a few tears came at the end as she laid her head on the giveaway pile and said good-bye to her old clothes.  But it didn't take her long to bounce up with a huge smile at the prospect of filling up the holes in her closet with lots of 6-T's! 

She's so big now…