Getting Dressed Up

Anyone else find it challenging to get your children dressed in something other than play clothes?

One day last year, my son came home from school wearing a pair of jeans with huge holes at the knees. I was horrified that I never noticed and let him go on his merry way to school. I worried about what is this might be teaching him. This is how I think my children view their wardrobe: dress clothes are any shirt with a collar or any non-jean pant. All other clothes are what they consider normal clothes.

Well, after the crazy hole in the ratty jeans and silly sport t-shirt with stains on it, I thought I should take matters into my own hands. The boys were the people not so psyched this time. I went into each of their closets and looked at each and every article of clothing. Each season I usually go through the clothes and purge or donate items, but this was the first time doing it with the goal of trying to beef up the boy’s school wardrobe. I created a pile for each boy of what I deemed as play clothes; to me this means any tattered jean with any size hole in it and any t-shirt. Then I made a pile for what I felt was appropriate school attire. During the process, I found some things that simply went to the garbage. Then I placed the play clothes shirts (long or short sleeve depending on the season) in one nice box and all the jeans, sweats and shorts in another bin. Both were placed on a shelf in their closets clearly labels play clothes.

Now comes the hard part. I told them about my plan. They weren’t so happy about it. Here’s basically what I told them: I think it’s time we pay some attention to what we wear to school. See how Daddy goes to work in a nice suit everyday? How do you think it would be if he went with jeans that had holes or messy t-shirt? It’s important to dress nice for Daddy to work so people see that he cares about his job and so he feels good about going to work and respects himself by taking care of himself. So…I think it would be good to look a little nicer for school. Right now, school is kind-of like your job, so we should look a little nicer. We will feel good looking nicer and the people around us will feel good too. They understood until I showed them the bins for their play clothes and what they would now be wearing to school on the hangers.

A few of their favorite ratty sports tee’s were in the play pile. They weren’t too happy with the “dressy” rugby-like shirt and khaki’s. They told me the clothes would be better for a wedding or Church.

This is hard for me to understand since I went to a private school as a child and wore a uniform. Plus, I’m a girl, so I liked dressing up. As a child, shopping was something I could have won a gold medal for if it was an Olympic sport. Not so much into shopping now, but dressing up was just never an issue.

After the initial shock faded, things worked out well. They know what they can and can’t wear and they follow the rules. Frankly, I think it makes it easier for them to get dressed in the morning because there are fewer options. Occasionally I’ll catch them in school clothes playing – then I ask them to change and likewise, I’ve caught them in play clothes before school and asked them to change. The school clothes get tattered too and end up in the play box and some of the play clothes get trashed. It’s a cycle I can manage. Now, if only I could get them to cooperate easier when it comes to getting dressed for Church or a nice dinner.

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