 |
| What turned out to be Abby's outfit. |
That reality doesn't so much upset me because I'm concerned about what others think as much as I feel awful for the judging I've done in the past.
Case in point:
I asked Abby what she wanted to wear today and -- for the second day in a row -- she wanted to wear a skirt without any tights. So, she was wearing nothing on her legs when we were leaving the house at 34 degrees.
On top of that, she didn't want to wear a coat. Peachy.
I wasn't up for starting up a tantrum over her walking from the house to the car, so I let her get in the car coat-free.
We get to school and are heading up the walkway. Abby is wearing a skirt without tights, a long-sleeved t-shirt and sunglasses. She looked like she was going to the beach, yet we could see our breath.
Jack was wearing about five layers.
As much as I didn't want to, I was justifying the issue as soon as we walked into school. By the time we got to her class, I told one of her teachers that I, in fact, brought tights she was refusing to wear.
On my way out, I saw her primary teacher. When I mentioned that I left the tights, she was clearly concerned and said, "Yesterday at recess we felt so bad for her poor little legs."
Outstanding.
I'm the awful parent for not dressing her properly when she INSISTED on wearing nothing on her legs.
Now we get to the dilemma.
Chrissie-sans-children thinks, "Come ON. You are the parent, here. Really? You are letting HER dictate that? You just put the tights on her!"
Chrissie-plus-Abby thinks, "Okay. So she'll be cold. It won't kill her. I'm not up for us being another 20 minutes late because Abby will literally drop to the floor in a fit and refuse to do anything until she wears herself out or we give in. Cold legs it is."
I ultimately recognized that Abby didn't want to wear tights because, a) they are boring (they're white ... how lame is that?) and, b) they have feet and she loves her some fun socks.
 |
| The leggings I found at Target. |
Back to Abby's school I went, armed with purple leggings and polka dot leggings. I pulled Abby out of her class to put them on her. She picked purple.
She had to take her skirt off to put the leggings on because the skirt has built-in shorts. I took the skirt off and put her leggings on. At that point, she refused to put her skirt back on.
Abby's reasoning?
"Mommy, the skirt will make me cold."
She has this condescending, you're-an-idiot tone that I really admire in a three-year old. I mean ... she sounds like she has everything figured out. It's impressive.
I finally gave up with my kid wearing leggings and her long-sleeved t-shirt.
When I got back to pick her up at the end of the day, she was, in fact, wearing her skirt. I was relieved my child was at least decent upon my arrival.
Looking forward to tomorrow's wardrobe, when we have countless patterns to choose from.
