Please tell me your tips on getting a 2.5YO dressed

[christiana]

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DD1 a little younger than your LO 2.2.
If I want her to get dressed I ask her if she'd like to do it "all by her self" then gently assist.

Seems to work. and she looks so proud of herself at the end.

Might not work by the time she's 2.5 though!

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Hi christiana
In the mornings, I find the solution is to get my ds1 (2.4) dressed AS SOON as he wakes up. I keep the curtains drawn, low voice, cuddles etc. He's still a bit sleepy and dopey then and hence more malleable, IYSWIM.
If I try to get him dressed once he's properly awake, has had breakfast and is feeling generally more feisty and wilful then it's a awful, tedious, long, long battle, much like you're having at the moment.

At times like that I'm afraid I use threats rather than bribery! i.e. "Oh, okay then, you don't want to go the park and go on the swings. Alright, you stay here and me and DS2 (4 months) will go without you." etc etc. This usually has him running back to me saying 'yes, yes, shoes please mummy. swings please mummy' etc etc. Good luck though. I don't have all the answers either and will be watching this thread for more advice too.

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With ds at this age I allowed a good hour for getting him dressed. I refused to let him out his bedroom until he had clothes on. Stayed calm but sat infront of door. Just repeat 'as soon as you get dressed' until he gave in.

The first day it took about 2 hours to get him dressed, but it quickly came down.

I still do it now (at 3.8) if he is being a pain. Or I offer to take him out naked (which he hates), that also works.

Seeming unbothered is the main thing, if you get wound up they get worse. SO leave plenty of time.

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Yeah, it is tiring isn't it. The one thing that has worked with both of mine is making different animal noises for each item. Kind of 'okay, what animal is going to be in this sleave?' Bonkers, but, hey, it works and we're all in a good mood instead of having a row. If my older one is faffing around we prtend he is a robot on a production line and have to tweak the buttons (i.e. nose, belly button) before each item goes on, accompanied by robot noises.

We have a 'man with a flag' who starts the race to get dressed (no real man, just an imagined one). He looks to see how quickly ds can get dressed. He makes appearances at other times too - eg the man with the flag says it's time to get out of the bath. I find going for the competative spirit works every time

Loving the man with the flag. My husband does gladiator-style getting dressed, which involves building tunnels and forward rolls over beds and running up the travellator (stairs). I don't have the energy for that - thank god for daddies.

does it matter if she is naked? I found it much easier to persuage ds to put on clothes to go to the park/out for a walk etc. also happy for ds to wear his jarmie top as a t shirt. I found at difficult challenging age of 2 to 3 it was much easier to only push the things that were really important. The other trick is to say what t shirt to you want to put on? so child gets tricked into agreeing to put on a t shirt at all.

btw Now at 3 he happily gets his own clothes out of the draw and gets dressed soon after waking

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Or try walking out the house with her naked, very calm. And then suddenly go, oh yikes, you've forgotten your clothes, quick. Laugh a lot, don't try to be in control. But you will win if you can find what floats her boat.

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Are you going out today? If so, have all her clothes by the front door. Say to her "ok let's go to the park or whatever now" Get your shoes o and bag and stuff, go to front door, go to open it, look at her, and in a mock shocked voice say "Oops, we forgot to get you dressed!" With much exxageration say "We can't go out naked can we? Quickly quickly, get this t shirt on, quickly, now trousers, now socks, quickyl so we can go out, now shoes, phew that's better" and get her dressed while you're doing this and make a joke out of it for the rest of the day "I can't believe we almost went out with you naked! Oops, you would have been soooo cold wouldn't you?" etc etc

I don't give them a choice.
Or time to argue.
Leave it for a while as she is het up now, then say, 'Right, amelia (or w/e), come with me quickly we need to get ready' take ehr to her wardrobe ask her what she is going to wear, pick up two outfits, ask which one.
When she chooses start putting it on, with emphasis on the 'quickly, quickly! If we don't hurry we won't be ready in time' and put it on her before she has a chance to realise what is happening.
It take about 1 seconds to pull a t-shirt over their head, same with a skirt, then her shoes, then straight out the door.
By the time you get outside she'll have only just realised what is happening.

OR

Let her be naked.
"Ok, I'm going now"
Go to the door, "are you ready?"
See how she reacts, does she refuse to go out without clothes? Are you happy with taking her out without clothes?
If you're going swimming can you not put her swimming clothes on? and take other clothes to put on after swimming, explaining her swimming stuff is now wet?

Or a combo of the two like OMDB says

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lol great minds VS!

Try not to make it into a battle of wills christina.

lol agree with several posters here.
Never give a choice. Also, here is a tactic I learnt from a HV when I was desperate with DD1 - worked like magic, simple but worth a shot:
Until they are back on track and happy to get dressed, try not even mentioning the words clothes or get dressed, do it automatically while distracting them instead. Eg. Have the clothes by your side and asl your toddler to bring you a book and sit down by you. Now in between oohing over the choice of book say "arms in the air" and whip off the PJs.. as you are readng the first page, pick up the top and pop over the head without pausing in the story, ease the arms in etc etc and carry on like this. If you remove the getting dressed from even being an issue worth talking about and do it almost by accident, life will get easier.
Another obvious thing: make sure the clothes you are putting on still fit. Nothing stresses out a child more than squeezing them into size too small trousers, getting hot and bothered then changing again. Tops stuck over the head and pulling are awful. Keep a check on what you have in the cupboards and it will remove stress.

i have this prob too, but found that it helps if whenever possible I let ds stay in his pjs if he wants too. have put warm coat over and let him wear them to the creche, or to the shops or whatever. He is much more cooperative then when I really need him to be 'properly' dressed. the best lesson i ever learned in child rearing is pick you battles, and for me, as long as he is warm enough i don't really care what he wears! agree with vicsqualor too. hth.

I've not read the rest of the posts . My ds was like this. i would turn it into a game (close my eyes... I don't know where the t shirt is....OHH, HOW DID THAT GET OVER YOUR HEAD?)or a race. Make it fun. Or you could try the heads shoulders knees and toes song, getting her dressed on each relevant part as you sing.

Someone i know had a similar problem. She found a solution by not fighting over it and took her daughter to toddler group wearing no clothes and dressed her once she got there.

ditto the race suggestion. DS2 (2) loves racing me to get dressed! with running commentary...

DD doesn't like racing games but she does like the one where I look in her empty clothes and say 'oh there's no dd in here' and then I close my eyes and she gets in them (takes a bit of practice dressing them with your eyes clothes!) and then I open my eyes and look inside the item of clothing and surprise surprise, there's a dd in there!

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