I think my son, Brennan, was a little over two years when he became obsessed with taking his diaper off. That was back in the day when
diapers with snaps were a rarity so toddler removal was fairly easy. Thankfully, he grew out of the phase and I learned my lesson by putting him in pants that also had snaps. Then, a few months before he turned three he started the
potty training process; we went with the naked approach which was effective, however, it created a little nudist! Many times I could be heard exclaiming, "Brennan put your clothes on!" Naturally, these phases passed but there's one phase that we recently went through that had me wanting to rip my hair out! It started out with an obsession with pajamas. Brennan would get dressed in the morning and by lunchtime he was in a new pair of PJ's. Afternoon would come and he had to do another PJ change. I thought the PJ phase would make me go insane but I was wrong. Let me introduce you to the cause of my questionable sanity for the last six weeks. Meet
Mighty Mouse. This brilliant shirt was a present to Brennan from my in-laws. I think his original love for the shirt came from a misunderstanding that it was
Mickey Mouse and then he remembered that his Grandpa and Nana gave it to him. That fact only increased his love for it. Day in and day out, for what felt like an eternity, Brennan would emerge from his bedroom wearing this bright orange shirt. I really honed my negotiating skills; every outing was a struggle because, of course Mighty Mouse had to be worn, whether or not he was filthy. From what I've read most children go through this clothing phase. For my sister, it was a purple dress with red knit tights, at the age of four. For my friend's daughter it was a tutu with pink leggings. Here's what I do know from personal experience:
- As difficult as it is, don't make a big deal out of it. It's a phase of independence that every child must go through. Really what other things can they really control in their little world? Don't squash the independence phase.
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No one keeps track of what your child wears every day except for you. Really, why did this shirt bother me so much?
No one else cares about it, nor do they really remember what my child is wearing day in and day out.
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Kids will be kids; pick and choose your battles. I found that I had to remind myself of this frequently.
Has your child gone through this? What did you do? It's okay, you can vent your frustration here...I won't tell.
My daughter loves Minnie Mouse and would wear her Minnie dresses and shirts every day if she could! She also has Minnie PJ’s that she wears when we stay home :)
My son loves cloth diapers!!
Thanks!
My son gets this way too about certain things!
lol. It’s funnier when you’re Not going through it yourself. Yes, my children did that. I think all but my first. Then again, she’s 19 so I may be forgetting her go-round with it. Either way, she certainly is going through a stubborn independent phase right now. Again, funnier when it’s not your child.lol
My second child used to simply like changing outfits rather than sticking to just one. My third, a boy, liked running around in his underwear, even in the dead of winter. He’d go to preschool, come home on the bus and strip down to his undies and play in the back room which had a hardwood floor to play with his train set. That was his routine. Every. Day. He would insist on wearing these dinosaur underwear my mom bought for him. Thankfully there were about five pair. When people came over he would refuse to get dressed. He’d always escape from his room (that sounds horrible, doesn’t it?lol.) and run by our house guests in his undies. One time he came out, and pretended to be a dinosaur in front of a friend who was visiting for the first time. He even turned around and stuck his butt out to show off the dinosaur on his bottom. Thankfully, she was very gracious and just laughed.
My five year old daughter hates showering but she loves playing outside. So as you can imagine, she gets pretty dirty. It started because she had really long hair down past her waist with beautiful golden brown ringlets but it got very tangled and she’d scream bloody murder when we tried to wash it. Thankfully I was able to talk her into cutting it short. Her beautiful ringlets are gone but she showers more often now. Her favorite outfit is a cheap Rapunzel (from Tangled) dress but thankfully she doesn’t wear it every single day.
I can’t wait to see what my youngest latches on to. She’s six months old so we’ve got a couple of years or so before she decides. :)
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