Dressing Girls For School

Dressing Girls For School

Editor's note: Lance gives us some very sensible advice here - and, as a parent of a 12 year old daughter, I know that the earlier you encourage your girls to get into the habit of planning their clothes the night before, the happier your life will be when they hit their pre-teen and teen years!

I have spoken to so many parents who tell me it is a monumental task to get their younger daughters ready for school in the morning. Every little girl wants to dress herself in the morning, but deciding on which outfit to wear can take forever and might even be a runway modeling selection process every morning. Unless your daughter has only one set of clothes to wear, she probably wants to change her outfit three times before choosing the one she will "agree" to wear to school each day.

At our house, we have instituted the guidelines for dressing for school and they start with choosing your outfit the night BEFORE. So, every night before my daughters get ready for bed they get to pick up to three outfits; from those three outfits they must choose the ONE they will wear to school the next day. Most often they use the popular "Eeny meeny miney moe" method of making their final choice and by now, 5 and 7 years old, they have figured out how to make that rhyme provide them the outcome they want.

While it takes a little longer to get them to bed at night, it saves major efforts in the morning when everyone is usually running late to get out of the house. Just don't get started on the hair in the morning or the whole plan could go out the window.

The "official" rules are, that if they pick their outfit the night before and then don't wear it or go back to the closet and start looking again, they only get to choose from two outfits for the next day. This method of organizing the girls in the morning has worked beautifully our house with only a few incidents from my youngest of revising her choice slightly, mostly when it comes to the shoes. The good news is, that if they do go to change that decision, it is usually to one of the other two outfits from the night before and that in and of itself can save a ton of time.

If you implement this method in your home, I am sure you will find, like I do, your daughters entering your bedroom to wake you up with them fully dressed and ready for school. Now it is them pushing me or my wife to get ready to get them breakfast and to school on time. Mom, hurry up, we only have 5 minutes is all I hear in the morning anymore. And, the kids are right, now it is mom that holds up the bus to school.

The program helps to keep your girls focused in the morning. It helps them get dressed by themselves without your help in the morning, as well, and it helps insure you getting out of the house for school on time. Now, if I could just get my wife onto the same program when we go out for dinner at night, my life would be perfect.

Lance Waite, a father of two daughters, is also the author of two children's books, A Day With My Dad, and, A Day With My Dad At The Beach. Inspired by the time spent with his daughters, the stories explore the value of spending time with children. For more information, visit: http://www.adaywithmydad.com/

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