When did you child start dressing themselves?

[Jackshouse]

DD is 2 and 3/4 yrs and can dress herself but won’t. Mornings are generally turning into a nightmare as she avoids it even if I’m doing it. She generally doesn’t like transitions.

I need to get her used to dressed herself because she is old enough and her sibling is due in August.

Bumping for the evening crowd and wondering if I have unrealistic expectations.

My 3 (4 in April) year old puts on his own pjs in the evening, but apart from that I get him dressed (or at least help him).

My 3.5 year old dresses herself and has done since turning 3. My 5 year old was closer to 4, I think I indulged her more!

My youngest is 12 and even now I will hoik jeans up and smooth his top down etc - purely because he literally looks like he's just thrown his clothes on

You have nothing to worry about.

My little boy who is 4 in March doesn’t dress himself. I’ve started getting him to take off bottoms and put in wash at bedtime but that’s all. He has a 15 month sibling and it was totally manageable - no battles or anything and is really quick

My 3yo can't fully dress herself, she can do most of it but needs help.

My DD is 3.5 and can dress herself apart from things like buttons. However I usually dress her in the morning before nursery or we’d never leave the house on time!

my 4.5 year old can dress herself, but I help her because it was causing so many arguments and she was tired from school. I'll pull on a sleeve and shove legs into trousers/tights.

My son is 3.5. He can dress himself but often back to front etc. I generally help him. I think if you push your little girl to do everything herself she may miss your attention and resent the baby.

My DS has only been physically able since about the time he turned 4. Now 4.5 he will sometimes dress himself when it’s a joggers and jumper day and we’re in no rush but school uniform (fiddly buttons and being in a rush) he gets help.

DD1 is 4 in a few weeks and can fully undress herself but weirdly not dress herself. Oh well! As long as she can get her coat and shoes on and off by herself when she starts school, that's fine.

Having younger siblings not really relevant imo. I have 2 under 1 as well and it's not really a big deal.

My 3yo could probably dress himself if he wanted to but would rather spend the whole day in his PJ's (fair dos, they do look comfy). He can however undress himself with surprising speed if he decides that right now he needs to be naked

My 4.5yo needs help with long sleeve tops and socks. He CAN do them but it takes ages so I generally help.

My 3 year old did. My now 5.5 does but wanted help for years, only because be craved attention. Youngest, almost three, can't quite do a lot of it.

When he started school at 4yo we pushed it more. He generally prefers someone else to do stuff for him. My 2.8yo tries to put t-shirt, jumpers and joggers on but still needs help.
Try making it into a game. Let her choose 2 options of clothes. Then ask her if her trousers go on her head. Or put them on your head/arm. That sort of thing.

Funnily enough we had a huge, raging, screaming tantrum about this just this morning, the likes of which my 3.5 year old rarely has any more.

She can do most of it. She just refuses to most of the time.

She can do pants, but sometimes backwards, which leads to frustration and unwillingness to try again. She finds tights v hard unless they are a bit big and can slide her legs in. She can do trousers and has recently figured out the tricky heel bit of sock so can do them.

She can do tops mostly but finds them tricky so refuses to try most of the time, too. She can do chunky buttons so I've put them on most of her button up tops/cardis (I sew her clothes). Small buttons often too frustrating.

She can do her coat but only by putting the hood on her face then spinning it round and hoiking arms into holes which makes me wince as I see her hair tangling before my very eyes.

She's a perfectionist, which I'm trying hard to train her out of, but makes things difficult as if she can't do something the first go, she gets very cross with herself and won't try again.

My situation a little different because of disability, she was at school before she could do almost all of it herself. But by 3 she was able to do some, however it did take some cajoling. She's 9 now and will still take forever to get dressed
if left to her own devices. So, definitely expecting too much. Not for her age but because children don't do hurry. Especially in the morning 😂

Make it a game. Set a timer. Let's see how quickly you can put your socks on. And get her involved with picking out her clothes. Or, have her in with you as you get dressed. "Let's see who can put their T-shirt on first". Our girl loves a contest 😀

Small buttons often too frustrating.

She speaks for all of us there, doesn't she? 😀

I would never even consider getting my nearly 3yo to dress himself. He pulls up his zip on a onezie/coat and can take off his trousers but that's about it. We did have to do quite a lot of practice with older ds in the summer before he started school so he could get dressed & undressed for PE (& not leave everything inside out) though so maybe I'll start encouraging ds a bit earlier but I wouldn't put too much effort into it in your case, he's still very young and it's easier & faster if they let you do it

Tip for when baby arrives, being kids outfits for the day into the living room and once they've had breakfast get them dressed at the same time. Makes it a lot quicker.
I wouldn't worry about getting her doing it herself before baby arrives, mine are 6, 2 and 1 and it doesn't take long dressing the younger 2.
My oldest was mostly dressing herself around 3.5-4 but I still sometimes helped dress her in the mornings for school until 5.
I'd just let it happen in its own time, tell her to have a go and then help her once she's done a bit. With the baby coming you'll probably find she wants more help and babying for a bit at first too anyway.

My 3.5 year old DD can dress herself (and has been for past 2/3 months) - the only thing she can’t do is buttons. Occasionally she may put a T-shirt on back to front, leggings on back to front, but she hasn’t made any mistakes the past 2 weeks so has listened when I explained about clothes labels (inside clothes) go on the back of her body.

Every child is different. Your child may improve by the time your baby is born in August, OP. Maybe just talk things through with her as you are getting her ready? Good luck.

3 year old DS can dress himself but his pants and trousers end up sideways and he struggles with tops (I think there's too many holes)!!!

1 year old DD can pretty much fully dress herself including socks!

Don't stress seems fine. My 3yo ds will put his clothes on only if tell him otherwise he'd happily sit in his PJs all day! He needs help with buttons and pulling his skinny jeans up and prefers me to put him in his PJs for bedtime. Although, he cannput his own gloves, socks and shoes on too

Careful what you wish for. My 3 year old can dress herself very well. And she does. In whatever she herself chooses, and refuses to change. Most days she walks around like a crazy homeless princess.