Help - takes me over 20 mins every morning to put my Toddler's socks and shoes on!!!

[Wills]

Help. Every morning we have same routine and its driving me barmy. I start off cool and composed but by the end I'm normally physically having to bite my lips to prevent myself from shouting. No matter what socks I try when I put them on my daughter she immediately squirms and announces that "they're messed mummy". If I haven't resolved the problem immediately she starts screamming her head off. I have to get the seam (at the toes) exactly right and the heel exactly right. I've just got the sock right and then put the shoe on and she's screaming again because of course attempting to put the shoe on moves the sock. 20 minutes every morning is agony. She's like this over all her clothes but the socks are the worst part. If you ignore her she simply keeps screaming (unless of course she can get her shoes off and remove the offending items). The other day I walked away adament that it was a control thing. 45 minutes was all I could bear - she seemed genuinely upset but the state of her wretched socks. Every morning I tell myself that i will remain calm and that I can do this but by the end I want to scream back. Its absolutely awful - is this a phase? Anyone else had this or have any advice?

Give her something that she really enjoys playing with or put something on she loves to watch. Just distract her as much as possible. Otherwise give her one sock to put on while you do the other!

Could you start to teach her to put her own socks on?

You can get seamless socks - like these . Perhaps removing the problem for a while would get her out of the habit of worrying about it? Sorry - no real idea where you'd get them from in the Uk though (dance shops or chiropodists perhaps?).

As someone who has a fight every single morning to get ds dressed I can really sympathise. There isn't anything wrong with his clothes its just that he doesn't like being dressed. I usually end up laying him across my knee, whilst pinning him down with my elbow then I quickly get his socks on, moving on to the nappy just over his ankles and the same with his strides. Then I stand him up and pull up the nappy and strides. After 2 years of practice it now takes seconds of him yelling his head off as if I'm trying to kill him (God knows what the neighbours think when he's shouting No Mammy please don't do that) and then he's dressed. Unfortunately some mornings he then proceeds to undress himself (amazing how he can do it then but not when I ask him to). So sorry no helpful advice just plain survival tactics.

Wills, loads of sympathy, no solutions though. I had a similar little darling but would go with Megg and the 'get it all out of the way asap' method regardless of the noise.

It passes, but now dd does it all by herself (DON'T HELP ME MUMMY !) we just have the hair brushing - she starts screaming and crying (real tears) before the brush has made contact...

Wills, sorry no answers but ds was/is capable of similar about socks and the seams being exactly right. You just want to scream "IT'S NOT IMPORTANT!!!!" don't you? Or maybe that's just me Yep, agree, try distraction and if that doesn't work, brute force! Hope it passes soon.

I know this may not help, but does she have to wear socks?? This sounds like a control thing, and I know it doesn't help to be flippant, but I have gone out with a todddler dressed in a blanket in the snow! (we were in the car) Funny thing is, she now puts her coat on happily!

We have one of these. I usually say 'X, socks do get messed up sometimes, thats life, it doesnt matter, look at that enormous fat cat out of the window/funny daddy/shall we go to the shops/which hat would you like to wear.'

You could also try letting your dd choose some nice new socks the next time you take her shopping. As a child I remember I was like your dd - I had a real thing about the sock seam over my toes. I had to wear socks with soft seams.

On days when you reach crisis point, could you get away with letting her wear wellies and no socks?

Whatever you do, don't let her see you wavering - either the socks go on or they don't. Distraction, as others have said, is a nice and ime usually effective way out of this, as long as you can turn a deaf ear to the sock complaints.