Goldie likes to choose her own clothes these days. I wouldn’t mind so much if she didn’t choose so . . . poorly. Part of me tries to think that I ought to put my pride aside. If my daughter is super happy wearing a pair of too tight forest green leggings along with a stretched out and faded orange Halloween shirt to the grocery store, then so be it, and honestly, most of the time it is, “so be it.” But, occasionally I would like her to appear well taken care of and yes, I might want just a little to showcase my daughters cuteness by putting her in some clothes that at least don’t clash horribly. The trouble is, this upsets her a great deal and can become a rather big battle. Sundays are bad. She is generally all moans and tears and complaints and begging (because I never choose the right dress). It’s pretty much the same story any time I try to dress her for any particular outing. The other night I had just gotten out her pj’s when the same protesting started. I don’t really care what she wears to bed, but I was frustrated so I said, “fine, Goldie, just pick your own jammies.” Apparently I said this too harshly because she then began to sob that she couldn’t pick her own now because she was too sad. “Goldie,” I sighed, “you just always pick things that don’t match.” She looked more forlorn than ever and managed to choke out through gasps and sobs, “I just love it so much when they don’t match.”I know, I know, there’s pick your battles, and there’s when you do pick a battle stand firm, or there’s compromise – perhaps she chooses from two outfits, perhaps it’s certain days. I’m sure I’ll figure it out, but sometimes figuring these very small things out makes me awfully tired because they are small . . . but there are oh so many of them and it’s maybe just as well that she wear ridiculous clothing one day and cute (albeit tear stained) clothing the next.
P.S. Her taste isn’t all bad though. She came up with a brilliant plan the other day to paint our house purple and pink and then . . . put stickers all over it (boy stickers and girl stickers so Abe would be happy). I did agree with her that the plan was an exceptionally good one but I’ve been rather evasive when she asks, “so, can we do that?” Paint can be pricey you know.
11 comments:
me first...AWESOME! I love that she loves it so much when they don't match. Classic.
Thanks for sharing and making me realize my daughter isn't the only soul out there that just does these things to make me mad/impatient/bugged/inadequately enforcing fashion etc...you are a victim too of your daughters individuality!
Goldie Goldie Goldie! I love her so much and I also loves that she loves it when things don't match so much. I went through so much difficult with Grace for so long! Luckily it is much better now, although we still have our days. Addie loves to dress herself and it is often terrible. But luckily we have worked it out pretty well. Any time she chooses something and i don't care about it, I say, "Great! I'm so glad you dressed yourself because it is your day to decide!" And other days i just tell her kind of sadly, "Oh, I'm so sorry. Its not your turn to decide. Most Sundays it is always my turn to decide for some reason." And she usually accepts it. Grace not so much. But at least every thing doesn't cause a tantrum because it "doesn't feel right!" any more (or not usually). and thank heavens for warm weather so they can just wear flip flops instead of the socks and shoes battle!
so i thought the clothes battle was only supposed to happen with girls, but no no. cole insists on choosing his own. usually it's fine, but it's the shoes that are the killer. the other day he found shoes to go run errands with me - one rain boot (bright green) and one snow boot. i couldn't change his mind for the life of me. oh well. :)
i must say i LOVE that goldie likes it when they don't match. :) hilarious!
Oh cool, I didn't realize that both Goldie and Chookie went to the same school of fashion!
I say "oh well" anymore as long as we're not going anywhere particularly important or if we're just going to be home. All other times it's me making the calls.
I love love love the things you think to say!
She will look cute no matter what she wears, but I totally understand about you being tired of the battle. Meg and I still argue about whether things look right together. Just wait until she wants to do her own hair and wear it to school. Meg has come up with some dooseys.
Kids just like the independence of picking out their own stuff...although Ana has NEVER cared thatI pick out her clothes, which I still do every night before school. I find this very, very odd, because she battles with me on pretty much everything else.
I love that she cried because she "loves it so much when they don't match." I would still squeeze her face off because she's adorable regardless of what she is wearing.
That's a tough one! Of course she's so cute and thinks her clothing choices are just beautiful, especially when they don't match. I used to work at a rec. center with kids that were ages 1-6 and you could always tell when the parents had lost the clothes battle. There was one little kid that came in once with a shirt that was about 6 sizes too big and rain boots in the dead heat of summer. I'm sure if anyone looks at her funny in public, they know that she chose to dress herself and if not they can just deal with it!
P.S. If you prefer to use the bottoms of old sweats for something more grown up than wearing them as a party hat, you might consider using them as dust rags. That's what my mom used to do.
Trust me, she will get over the clash and then she will move on to monochromatic and that stage lasts longer than you will want it to last because while it will match, it will make you want to scream because she won't look like a kid she will look like a blueberry, a strawberry, a lemon, an orange, an apple or any other colored fruit or "cow stomach".
So fear not that she looks like something ready to come out of a cow stomach - she will get past it.
Cow stomach. Lets see how much we can use this in our comments. No one knows. We are crazy. Well, they know we're crazy. They just don't know about scientific cow stomachs.
Hee hee "I just really love it when they don't match.."
O I just need to hug her right now! I love her so MUCH!!!!
Man it doesn't matter what she wears because she is the cutest thing in the entire universe!!!! Remember when she wanted that sweet boys outfit that I was getting rid of from Con and Will? She was even cute in that.
I just loved this post and the earlier one about Goldie as well. She is so darn cute and funny!
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