Cease Fire

Our 6 year old little Darling has a way with big temper tantrums.  Most of them are associated with clothes.  Like most children she is uber-sensitive about the way the seam in her socks fits on her toes, but my personal favorite clothing complaint is the one about how her shirts bunch up around the neck whenever she inexplicably stretches her arms out in front of her and crosses them at the wrists.  No matter how many times I try to tell her that there is absolutely no reason she should have to do that during any given normal day, she remains unconvinced.

This disagreement between us has gone on for months.  The pinnacle of the Clothing Wars was the day Eric had to physically hold her down while I put a shirt over her head.  It was at this fine moment that it occurred to me that maybe this wasn't how all families with young girls started out their mornings.  Things had to change.

That's when the internet came to the rescue.

I did a quick search and found this really interesting topic: Sensory Disorders.  Many people with this issue have problems with clothing.  Of course Lilly doesn't have this issue, but she definitely has Issues with clothes.  And as I was reading, I found this really neat cure for the Issue at hand: rub different textured items over the body to get the skin used to different sensations so that the sufferer will get used to these textures and realize that clothing is not going to hurt them.

I thought this was ingenious.

That night I began the Ritual.  I took a flat paddle brush and scraped it over Lilly'e entire body while she stood there in her undies with a perplexed "have you gone crazy" look on her face.  I nobly explained to her that this was a type of Occupational Therapy that helps people with clothing Issues.  The next day it was a dry Loofah.

On the third day she was miraculously cured and never complained about how her clothes felt again.

But occasionally we still have disagreements about what is fashionable.  For instance, there was a period of months that Lilly would only wear what she called her "Horse Rider" clothes.  Basically this meant she had only two pairs of bottoms that she would wear: a pair of purple capri leggings or a pair of knee length denim shorts.  (Note: Oddly enough she refused to wear either of these articles of clothing during the summer when they were appropriate.  Instead she waited until the cold days of November to decide they were acceptable).  Then she would add a nicely worn out t-shirt and tuck it into the waistband of the chosen bottoms.  To finish the ensemble, she would wear her knee high black leather boots.  And Voila!  Horse Rider extraordinaire!

To negotiate a cease fire of the Clothing Wars, I came up with a bribing system.  For every 7 days that she wears the outfit I pick out for her, she gets a treat.  Today ended the first week of said negotiations.

Lilly has a brand new fashionable Barbie and I have a brand new fashionable daughter.

All is fair in love and war.