For years I've been accused by my oldest child of controlling the clothes he wears. Two summers ago Ethan came to me and expressed his frustrations. We talked about what it was he wanted to wear that I wasn't getting and that that evening I purchased him an (almost) whole new wardrobe. (It seems to me that I'm a pretty reasonable lady! )
Since then I have tried to keep my opinions quite and reserved for only must address clothing situations. Summers are no problem. Ethan wants to wear shorts and t-shirts, and since I'm the one making final purchase decisions I'm generally fine with how he puts them together. Enter the problem, ETHAN ONLY WANTS TO WEAR SHORTS AND T-SHIRTS!
Fast forward to this morning. My weather app said it was 24 degrees outside. Ethan came down in basketball shorts (already a no, no), long socks, and a hoodie. UGH!
I kindly and lovingly told him the temperature and let him know he would need to quickly go upstairs and change into jeans if he was going to eat breakfast before he left school.
Enter the two year old tantrum. And the "you just want to control everything I wear" speech.
His thoughts and reasonings are that since only 2-3 inches of his legs are showing between the shorts and long socks it's almost as though he is wearing pants. I'm sorry, call me controlling, but "almost" wearing pants on a 24 degree walk to the bus just isn't going to cut it. His other frustration is that pants aren't comfortable. Well, no they most certainly aren't as comfortable as basketball shorts and sweatpants.
Since the children started school (and since I'm controlling) I've had a
strict no sweats to school policy. I am not of the mind that my
children need to be "comfortable" at school, in fact I want them to be a
little uncomfortable. I don't want their lazy, sloppy, or too casual
attire to bleed over to their attitude. Now, I'm also not making them
wear suits and ties to school either. I fully believe there is a happy
medium here.
I'm happy to report that Ethan did end up changing into jeans, and still had time for breakfast and to apologize to his sweet, sweet mama. And that I'm fairly certain we found that happy medium!
1 comment:
Danae, I read your post and couldn't help but laugh and share your thoughts with Eugene. I would love to tell you that this issue is going to get better, however we are battling the same issue with Bryson. I have spoken to many friends about this issue and everyone is in the same boat... as I drive up to drop him off at school everyday, I witness a sea of 7th grade boys standing outside "freezing" with their shorts, t-shirts and sometimes some of them have hoodies. I took a picture for you on Saturday ~ Bryson was outside shoveling snow in our driveway with his shorts and t-shirt! :)
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