We had two VERY ugly mornings in a row. Especially, more-than-usual, ugly! Maybe because it was the lazy, easy-going days of Winter Break were over and the kids needed to get back in their routine, but it was enough to make me want to start drinking heavily. Like at 8:00am.
Ian sets his alarm clock to wake himself up. He now sleeps right thru it. I go into his room to check that he is up and after I've woken him up, Ian says to me, with his eyes still closed, "Come back in 10 minutes and make sure I am awake." I am now Ian's own personal snooze alert.
Meanwhile, Sam is throwing fit after fit after fit over her self-created fashion dilemmas. She originally picked out all her own clothes at the store. We periodically go thru her closet and take out everything she has outgrown. She has dozens upon dozens of clothing options appropriate for whatever the weather is. Her closet is organized for easy retrieval on the items she should be focusing on to wear for that season. Sam getting dressed should be a no-brainer. However, that is far from the case. Even when she picks the outfit out the night before (as usually is the case), she will put it on the next morning and then scream & whine she doesn't like it. 5 outfit changes later and she is no closer to being happier in anything she puts on. It is a very loud, emotionally draining, and exhausting process. With seconds to spare, she begrudgingly settles on something to wear and we make it to school in time. Even Ian gets in on the act and tells her she looks fabulous; please just keep that on! It is so not fun.
Enough is enough! I've tried various things to alleviate this pain. My big idea I came up with a few months ago was to not make her breakfast until she came downstairs dressed. That worked for a little while until she outsmarted me big-time. She'll come downstairs dressed, get breakfast and then start the whole brouhaha over her outfit of choice and the need to change repeatedly, ad nauseum.
No more! I am stopping the insanity. Round 2. I called a meeting with Jeff, Sam and me. I said this needs to stop. From now on, here is how it will go down at Casa del Toppall. I need everyone on the same page and ready to follow these new set of rules. The evening before school, Sam will pick out her outfit. If she needs to try it on, she should. Sam should have as much time as she needs to pick out something she will want to wear. Therefore, we need to start this process earlier than the 5 minutes before bedtime we've been doing. Since Jeff does the bedtime routine, it was important he give Sam additional time to assemble her outfit for the next day and not get impatient if it was taking too long. The next morning Sam gets dressed with the chosen outfit. If she throws a fit, changes her mind or protests in any way on what she is wearing, she loses her iPad for the whole day. Since Sam LOVES her iPad, this is a consequence she doesn't want to encounter.
And that my friends is the new plan. We've already had a taste of the good and the bad. The first morning was major success. The next morning, the old Sam returned and was in rare form. She put on the outfit she picked out the night before and had a change of heart. Jeff was working from home and witnessed first hand what I go through. I now have Jeff fully on board with my plan and the consequence. We've adjusted it slightly to say that when she comes home from school, she needs to pick out her outfit for the next day before she does anything else (snack, homework, tv, iPad, etc).
Time will tell how successful we are.
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