Your Favorite PJ s are not Party Attire

My girl is two and half years old. Yes, just two and a half, but her tantrums to wear a particular dress repeatedly, or the color green throughout the day drives me crazy. I lovingly call her, and my seven-month-old little boy, pint-sized dictators, as they dictate the terms at home.

One day, all she wants is the green color, and next day her favorite becomes blue, then red takes over. It is beyond any mother’s capacity to change the entire wardrobe every day. I used to be in splits on how to dress her up in a decent dress when she was hung up on wearing the night suit to school.

Mornings are complete rush hours where everyone and everything clamors for my attention. Whether it’s my son who wants to be in my arms, my girl who only wants to sit on my lap, the breakfasts and lunches that need to be prepared, and I need to get ready for my day job.

I wanted to avoid the morning confrontation with my daughter on what should be worn (I have my own issues to select the right dress for the work). I had to think carefully and devise a strategy to deal with the princess.

It took me few days to come up with a plan, as the person on the other side outsmarts me a couple of times. Here’s what I came up with. Up goes the workflow! (This workflow has been designed keeping in mind the mentioned facts: my daughter’s school is for three hours, after that she comes back home, and then in the evening she goes to play)

Step One: I divided her wardrobe into two sets. One, which is expressly meant for school, parties and going out. The second set is intended for evening play activities, home wear, and nightwear.

Step Two: The location of the two set of clothes should be different. Do not keep both the sets together. E.g. If you maintain the home wear in one almirah, the school/party outfits can be hidden in your wardrobe which means out of her reach.

Step Three: Whenever I buy new clothes for my daughter, or when she is gifted clothes, I do not show them to her. They are straight away added in her school/party outfits.

Step Four: When I am getting her ready for the school, that is the time when the new dress comes out, and she merrily gets ready. I apply the same technique when we are going out. If I am running low on the stock for the dresses, I team up with her on the color or the type of the dress.

Step Five: She is free to tinker with home wear as much as she can. This could mean she is changing clothes almost every hour as something or the other has happened to her dress; there is a DROP of water, food PARTICLE, or she simply decided she doesn’t like the color.

This plan is working so far for me and I’m hoping it will work at least for the next few months.

All the best in dressing up your doll!