Obsessed


My daughter LOVES dresses. And skirts. And tights.
I do not know how we got here, but here we are.
Princesses are the end all, be all...but ballerinas occasionally are 'the bomb' too.
I have not encouraged this fetish.
I have not forcibly dressed her in dresses simply because she is a girl.
I remember what it is like to be a girl that everyone wants to see get all dressed up.
I am pretty sure i purposely abstained from wearing dresses. just.because. i. was. told. to.
I can't really think of any other good reasons why i hated wearing dresses, except that i possibly was more tomboyish.

So yes, back to my daughter.

We are at a stand still.
I was told in no uncertain terms the other day that pants are dumb.
Yep, my almost 4 years old told me that pants are dumb Mommy!
What do you say back to that?

Um...no...dear daughter....pants are smart? Cr*p!

I have to pry tights off of her, after the 3rd or 4th day.
I then must hide said tights and all clothes deemed dirty.
Now, i must wash these right away because if i do not...someone might take them and start wearing them again!!!

True story, as i collected laundry for a load the other day, i had only placed dirty dresses in the washer. I kept adding things to the load and then i realized... my almost 4 years old was running around wearing a very dirty dress (food stained). Where had this dirty dress come from?? She had STOLEN it straight from the washer, because it is one of her favourites.

Learned my lesson. I guess.

My annoyance with the whole princessey equals beautiful/pretty thing is that society puts it out there. Somehow my daughter equates wearing dresses with being pretty. I do not like that. I know this is how she thinks because when i asked her if she'd like to wear her necklace to school the other day, she told me that NO she did not want to wear it because necklaces ONLY go with dresses. I was making her have a pants day--i even warned that if we didn't wear pants to school at least one day of the week (we have two brand new pairs) that i might hide all dresses and skirts and tights. Did i really warn her i might do that?? Cr*p!

So she played along and wore the pants...eventhough she complained that they were falling down (we got out a belt), and that her legs were itchy and the finale, "Mommy i actually think i do not want to go to school today. I'm sick."

Cough. Cough. A-choo.

When did my almost 4 years old turn 15??

This no pants wearing thing is definitely going to age me ten years. Like i need that. It's not that i'm opposed to all this dress wearing, but we need to be slightly more reasonable about this. I mean, it's cold here! Like, really cold. Pants are kinda, important.

Oh well. I guess we'll argue about different things in only a short time. I'm sure i'll be laughing about this when we start talking tattoos, piercings, black hair and ripped jeans....

Right??



Comments

Matty said…
Trust me on this. I have two grown daughters and this is just a phase. There was a time around 3 years old that my youngest insisted that she was a boy, and I have it on video as proof. Just enjoy your daughter being who she is, and many years from now this will make for a great story.
Helen McGinn said…
*L* I agree with Matty; this is a phase. My daughter went through it and believe me, no encouragement is necessary. If ever anyone had any doubt if nature has anything to do with the making of personality, look at wee girls brought up in a household where dresses aren't particularly encouraged.... If they want it, they want it, it's not your fault or even theirs....aargh, I feel for you.

I bought the sparkliest, prettiest pair of jeans I could find; luckily, Gap were doing a range at the time with butterflies, flowers and sequins....I 'hid' them where she would find them and did the whole "...no...I think I'm going to take them back to the shop" carry on, with her pleading to keep them. I eventually succumbed...."Oh, ok then!". ;O)

Hehe, ripped jeans and tattoos will be a piece of cake in comparison.... ;O)
Unknown said…
Ya that's what i did. We (her and i) picked out the girliest, sparkliest pairs of pants we could find.
But now they are dumb. LOL
The dresses i can live with--but the changing our clothes 12 times a day has to stop! MY the laundry!! LOL
What IS the next phase and when can i expect it?
JeanetteSchenk said…
lol.. I know exactly what you are going through Sam.. my now 7 year old daughter was a fierce princess at the age of 3-4. When Barbie made her (thankfully) short break on our scene I too worried about the effects of what our society deems pretty/beautiful. In hindsight, I think we might have over thought things during this phase.
My only tidbit of information is that we were conscious to praise her natural beauty in track pant days, soccer uniforms as well as the beloved ball gown - which is now a tattered mess of well loved memories at the bottom of the dress up trunk. :)
Nancy C said…
That's hilarious. Uhhhh, yeah pants are dumb. Unless you like to be warm and comfortable, that is.

Funny. I guess I won't have this particular problem unless I find kilts for the lads.
Since my daughter was 2 nothing but dresses....now 15 almost 16....still loves dresses but in the winter she wears pants.
D'Anna said…
HA!!!!!! Goodnight! I think we might have twins! Sophi told me the other day that she HATES jeans and will NEVER wear them! I have to do some quick Mommy moves when it is so cold she MUST wear pants . . .
Every day she asks when she can wear her short-sleeve dresses!
She wears her tights, a skirt/dress/princess dress/ballerina skirt every day (not all at once)- and would sleep in them too, I think!
She is so conscious of being pretty - and she has some MOVES, I'm telling you.
It is very interesting to me - because, like you, that is so not me . . .
I want her to know that she IS beautiful - inside and out. We talk about what LOOKS beautiful and what IS/DOES/ACTS beautiful.
Maybe something is sinking in . . .
Unknown said…
It gets worse when the grade one teacher says things like: "Her mother sent her to school in a totally co-ordinated outfit. Even the buttons matched!" Wait a minute, she dressed herself!!
shortmama said…
My oldest loves dresses too...the bonus though with her in school she only gets to wear them certain days because of PE!
Mrs. M said…
Maybe if you started to tell her all you wanted her to wear is dresses, THEN she might think pants sound pretty cool. My daughter almost always just does the opposite of what she thinks (or what I say) I want her to do (or wear). :)
Unknown said…
Well, it's worth a try! All these ideas are worth a try. It is FUN seeing this be her personality...but why do i have to incur so much laundry?? LOL
She's definitely girlie, most likely because i'm not uber girlie (u r right teri).
Thanks for listening to me gripe all!
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Laura said…
I am also worried about this in my daughter's future. I am not against it. I just hate when people tell her (even at 13 months) that she MUST wear pink and dresses and only play with 'girl' toys etc because she is the first girl in the family since her grandmother's generation.
At Christmas, I told my mother in law that I was going to start giving all of the gifts she bought for Ella to our dog to chew because I'm sick of her telling met that since she didn't have boys, she gets to make Ella a Princess. bleh.
My daughter is 17 months old, she does not go to school yet and somehow she really prefers dresses and girl clothes. I really don't know where she gets it from. I hated dresses as a kid and I don't really wear them now, but as soon as she puts one on her face lights up. Weird.

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