Teach a girl...

You have heard the saying "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day.  Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime."  

I believe in it.

So you were probably encouraged by my last post about Haley dressing herself for three days straight.  Well, I hope you didn't get too excited, because you are probably going to be disappointed.

I got excited.

After the outfit that Haley put together Monday morning I got to thinking about what she might dress herself in to school the next day.  I thought that if she put on something that I didn't think would be appropriate for school it would be very discouraging for her if I told her to change.  

So I ran upstairs on Monday afternoon and I rearranged her dresser drawers.   

They were a complete mess anyway.  I pulled out all of the questionable clothes.  The tops that would need a layering piece because they might be too thin, had spaghetti straps or were too low cut.  The tops that were too short in the midriff.  The tops that just didn't fit her anymore.  

I carefully laid out her tops in her dresser drawers so that she could easily pick one without having to rummage.

Her short sleeved tops drawer.

Her long sleeved tops drawer.

Her sweaters, button up shirts and hoodies.

I didn't tell her until the next morning when we went upstairs to get her dressed.  I opened the drawers and explained to her what I had done.  I don't think she was too excited.  I actually got the feeling that she really didn't want to go to school.  At least she sure didn't care about getting dressed.  

She jabbed her finger at the topmost t-shirt in the top-most drawer.  I opened her pants drawer and she jabbed her finger at the top-most pair of pants.  Then she plopped down on the bed and refused to do anything.  She didn't even assist me as I assisted her.  It was very disappointing.

The next day wasn't much better. 

It wasn't much better all week.  

She did seem to be more interested in putting her outfits together as the week went on, but she was not interested in getting herself dressed and she certainly didn't do it on her own like she had on the weekend.

I decided that if she at least got herself dressed today that would be something.  There wouldn't be the rush to get ready like there is on a school day.  I had to leave the house fairly early to take her Big Sis to the dentist and when I left she was still in her pajamas.

When we got home she came running into the entry to show me what she was wearing.

Guess what!

She was wearing the same outfit she had worn the previous weekend.  The same purple top that her sister had given her that she had gotten at the Zoo. Of course by now I had washed it.

I said "Haley, did you get dressed all by yourself?"  

She said "Yeah."  

Her Dad peeked his head over the upstairs railing and said "She needed some encouragement, but she did pick it out and she did dress herself." 

I said "Woo!  Hoo!  Good job Haley!" and I gave her a big hug.

Haley likes her clothes.  She likes to layer.  The one constant all week, including the weekend that she dressed herself, is that she likes to change her outer layer.  She wore four different tops over the purple t-shirt last weekend, a sweater and three different hoodies.  Each day this week she would start out in a hoodie and then go upstairs and change into a sweater or another hoodie.  Yesterday she put a long sleeved white t-shirt with grey stripes over a black t-shirt with fluorescent lettering on it.  

Just now she came in to the kitchen wearing a white long sleeved t-shirt over the purple t-shirt she was wearing.

She can dress herself.  

She does dress herself.

So...

Teach a girl to dress herself and you never know when she will get dressed, what she will wear or when or how often she will change.