At what age should a child be able to dress themself?

[undercovamutha]

My DD is 4.5yo. She can dress and undress herself. I know this because she does so for PE at school.

At home I can occasionally get her to focus and be helpful long enough to take her tights or knickers off, or occasionally put her nightie on. But most mornings (in a rush to get to work/school) I end up trying to get her dressed whilst she wanders off, stares out the window, tries to reach toys etc. She makes very little effort to help and tbh my nearly 2yo makes more effort - helping to pull trousers up, arms out for t-shirt etc. DD however, just waits for her slave (me!) to dress her!

I feel like she should be able to get herself ready on her own at this age, as I know she is capable. I want to have a bit of a crackdown on getting her to be a bit more helpful in the morning, but it is hard when we have to be up and out so early.

When did your DCs start getting dressed on their own?

Not at all helpful, but I feel your pain.

DD is 3.5. She can take off all of her clothes in record time and put them in the wash. She can put on pants and trousers. She sulks about socks. She strops at tops. She does help me get her dressed though, she doesn't just stand there.

Could you make it a game, fastest arm first, who will win today, left or right etc? which is easier - top on or trousers on, who will win the prize?! could you incentivise her with stickers or something?

I can see myself still helping her get dressed at 4.5 so I will watch this thread with interest.

I agree with crispface, make it a game. Put a timer on and see if you can get dressed before it beeps, sticker chart, extra story at bedtime for being a good girl in the morning. Anything that might focus her on getting dressed.

I sometimes sing a song and see if they can do whatever I wanted them to do before the song finished. I often pick the alphabet song as I feel that's an educational way to make them hurry!

A race works well with my dd1 who is 4y. I take my clothes into her room some days and we race to see who can dress first.

Thanks everyone. Will try the race approach - its got to be better than the 'shout really loudly' approach I have recently adopted!

my DS of that age is responding very well to the Great Getting Dressed Race!

I think I'd be worried if a 4.5 yr old physically couldn't dress themselves - them not being interested in doing it when we need them to doesn't surprise me one jot.

Good luck!

I re read my post and think it sounded like we have lovely games and races and it all works perfectly, don't get me wrong we have days where it all goes wrong and I scream blue murder at them [bad mum emoticon]

my 4 yr old dresses himself. If a race doesn't work, then I have on occasion just told him I'll take him to preschool in his pyjamas if he won't get dressed. It's surprising how quickly he can get dressed then.

dd is 3.10 and can do most of it herself, but is another dawdler

we get dressed before breakfast now, to provide and incentive.

I have no involvement in DD's dressing or undressing these days, haven't for about a year (she's 4 in April). I'm not allowed to pick her clothes, not even her knickers. She has to choose all outfits and I'm not allowed in the room. This results in some, shall we say unusual styling arrangements, but I think she wants to be the next Gok or something. So I leave her to it.

Problem with our situation is we have to leave the house by about 7.45am (breakfast club/nursery/work), and as DD goes to school so has to be reasonably smart in formal uniform.

Also she is SO stubborn, she would probably leave the house in PJs rather than give in!!!

Oh, that sounds so familiar! The dawdling, away with the fairies thing. DS is 5 and still does it. Some days he'll dress in 30 seconds, other days, he'd be there all day without me screeching at him. He does not respond well to races, gets very upset about it. Reward chart utterly failed. Gah!

Yes, race is a good idea!

I do a running race commentary when DD1 and DD2 are getting undressed at night (DD2 is only 10 mths, so I obv do her). DD1 (3.5) loves it and it's a great game, making each item of clothing a jump in a national hunt race

Morning time is a bit different - the usual manic rush can make you give in. How about just a few minutes quiet time with your DD? I always brush DD1's hair for 5 minutes in the morning - that way she can sit on my lap and have cuddles (something she craves - certainly doesn't crave the hair brushing - check my profile!) and that tends to make her calmer and more compliant to my requests.