3 year old dd fussy about clothes

[puddle]

My dd is getting increasingly picky about what she wears. I can't bear it and find that I have no patience for those early morning battles about what's appropriate to wear and what is not.

Today she is insisting on wearing three layers, despite the fact that it's really hot. She has perfectly nice clothes that she refuses to wear for a variety of reasons; because they're trousers, because she doesn't like a dangly bit or a button, etc etc etc. She hates having nothing on her feet and has to wear socks in bed.

Anything remotely approporiate for the weather is a battle - wellies, mac, sandals.

Is it A Phase? Can anyone give me hope it will pass soon?

[Feistybird]

giver her a choice....do you want to wear this or this?

worth trying

[lucykate]

i think it is a phase, my dd was the same at 3, wouldn't wear anything i picked out for her and would only wear skirts or anything pink.

it did pass. try choosing her clothes with her the night before and lay them out ready for her. that will avoid early morning battles and you might have more patience to compromise with her if you do it before she goes to bed. i got so fed up, we went out shopping together and i let her choose some new clothes, from a carefully pre picked selection of course . that way she couldn't argue as she had picked these clothes herself.

[puddle]

I do give her a choice. She quite often puts it on and then decides to get dressed in something different. And at least three things that she won't wear at the moment were chosen by her.

[frogs]

Yes, a phase. But can be a long one. Ds was like this for ages -- at about 2.5 he'd get up early to put his own clothes on, knowing that I probably wouldn't bother to make him change back.

We've had some amazing outfits in our time: at one stage he wore an old Barbie pyjama top of dd1's to nursery every day for about 4 months. Dh wasn't thrilled about that, to put it mildly. Then we had the cycling shorts and kneesocks phase -- that wasn't great either. Then for a while there was a weird distinction between 'soft trousers' which were bad (oddly) and 'hard trousers' (anything with buttons and a zip, I think) which were good, for some reason. He's still pretty picky now (he's 7) so you may be in for a long haul, though they do get more amenable to reason eventually.

Just go with it, short of serious danger to health or the risk of massive offence at great-auntie Edna's 90th birthday party. Give up spending money on clothes -- beg, borrow or arrange to inherit a large and varied selection of gear for the lowest possible outlay and then leave her to it. Set a kitchen timer if she dawdles over it, along the lines of: 'if you're not dressed by the time the bell rings I will choose the clothes for you.'

Warning: you will not be able to maintain this level of insouciance if you've just spent £120 on mini-boden, so don't. Just don't.

[motherinferior]

I'm rolling with it. DD2 is far fussier than her sister. It's exhausting.

[puddle]

She has got the odd bit of mini boden frogs and funnily enough they are things she will wear. We had a bit of this with ds but his was all about comfort which I could understand and so choose clothes accordingly. With dd it's more to do with aesthetics.

She also wears hairbands Mark Knopfler style at the moment.

[Tortington]

bollocks - get a set of clothes out and give her no choice.

choice my arse. shes THREE fgs

[speedymama]

Sorry but I'm with Custardo. No 3 yo will ever dominate me.

[nailpolish]

i second getting them out the night before

and be strong, dont give her a choice

choice for parties etc MAYBE

[frogs]

Well fair enough, that's an alternative strategy. Actually I'm pretty tough on most things, but clothes just never seemed important enough to have an argument over. As long as they get dressed in something that isn't actively indecent or a hazard to health, why have a fight over it?

[puddle]

lol custardo.

She's not exactly dominating me speedy. Obviously I am in charge but I like to pick my battles.

But I may try the no choice route for a few days.

[motherinferior]

I used to get DD2's - and DD1's - clothes out the night before. I was firm. No arguments allowed. Then DD1 took to dressing herself, quite competently, and DD2 is...well, DD2. I love her to bits. She is adorable. In a kind of tornado ish way.