This is normal. This happens to everybody. These, of course, are the words I find myself repeating as I fully hunched over waddle-chase my toddler around her room in an attempt to clothe her for what is either the 4th or the 40th time of the day. As I think back on it now, I am lucky enough that my brain has so graciously chosen to block out the majority of these memories, no matter how much my chiropractor reminds me. Although, if I dig deep enough down into the couch cushions that make up said brain, I know precisely what leads to this aforementioned nightmare scenario.
In between all the mess that is parenting a toddler, it’s surprisingly easy to forget that our little ones are already so much like us. They look like us (sometimes), they talk like us (terrifying), and they think and feel like us, too. So, it should come as no surprise that when your child gets dressed in the morning, they want to wear what makes them feel comfortable. No matter how much you just spent on that adorable terry cotton lemon print romper with pockets (POCKETS!!). It’s at that point where you find yourself a crossroads. Either you let them go to school with the same cozy knee-hole-ripped banana-encrusted pants they wore yesterday, or you maintain control over their wardrobe, and a bit of their comfort, for one more day.
I’m guilty of this, but I am also a hypocrite, too. A brief browse through my own wardrobe would reveal the same comfy, cozy (albeit less banana-encrusted) pant. We wear what makes us feel comfortable, and we wear it again and again and again. Even more so now than ever before in our eternal zoomscape world, we wear clothes for ourselves, and to impress upon our children that they do otherwise is disingenuous. So let’s start this blog off with a bang. From this day forward, I hereby pledge to put comfort at the top of the list. When the dresser is full of clothes that my child feels like themselves in, it’s incredible how much easier getting dressed can be.
- Colin