As mentioned in the monthly post about Emily, she has a small obsession with pajamas lately. It's all she wants to wear. Almost every morning (or afternoon on a bad day) finds us engaged in a battle to get dressed and usually includes tears or screaming. At some point later in the day Emily usually emerges from her room wearing pajamas again. I've tried the tactic of making her stay in her room until she decides to get dressed because "Big girls wear clothes during the day." However, she is usually perfectly content to play and entertain herself for hours on end in her room, so it doesn't phase her much. The other day she literally spent the entire afternoon in there. She came out several times and each time she was modeling a different set of jammies. She even started dressing her stuffed animals in her jammies! On another night she insisted on wearing her long-sleeved flannel monkey pajamas that are really too small by now and had to have them buttoned all the way up to the top.
At the beginning of this phase I thought it was safe and smart to keep her jammies in the top drawer of her tall dresser. Then she figured out she could reach it using the step stool in her room. I put the step stool in the closet and she tried other creative step combinations. Then she finally figured out how to scale the dresser using the drawer pulls and somehow manages to open the sticky top drawer. Did I mention that her CD's are also in that drawer? My only other option right now is to take out the entire contents of that drawer, put it in a box or basket and store it on the top shelf of her closet. Either that or wait for this phase to pass. It has been about 3 weeks, which is the average length of her phases. We'll see how motivated I am. ;o)
P.S. To top off the clothing battles, when Emily does finally get dressed (sometimes with the help of a video bribe), she is very insistent on what she wants to wear, and it's only about 4 different things, 3 of which are used play clothes. So much for all the cute tank-tops and sundresses I bought on clearance last year!
Don't you just love the battles over the silliest (yet most irritating) things? Luckily most of them don't last too long which is a gift from God but in the meantime.. how do we not go crazy? I have no solution for now.. as you often say.. this too shall pass.
ReplyDeletemy motherly advice for you is to choose your battles - and in this case I'd let the girl wear jammies...she is happy,and don't we all have days where we wish we could stay in our jammies all day! Chances are in a few weeks she will want normal clothes on again and then she won't want to sleep in jammies at night....this is kids - they push the limits...but sometimes it isn't worth the hassle of fighting them on a subject they are too little to understand. She's in clothes - not specifying if its jammies, or a swimsuit, or play clothes, or church clothes - to her they are all clothes. They like what they like - just like we adults have our favorites. My kids do the same thing - wanting what they like over and over again and tons of cute clothes go unworn. If it really bothers you - take all the jammies away - so they are no longer anywhere she can get to them. Give her 2 options for clothes - have her pick...that way she still feels a bit in charge of the situation - and you both win in the end...sort of. And one thing you may not have thought of - but she might think that Lincoln gets to be in jammies all day (since he may be wearing sleepers etc...or outfits with feet in them)...she may just want to be like him?? It is a thought? Good luck! Take care my friend - you will get through this as well and no sense in driving yourself crazy over it when you have a full plate already! Kimber
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