Monday 20 June 2011

Double Dressing

I think my worst twin moment of the day must definitely be dressing time. I have tried every strategy under the sun to streamline this agonizing, psychologically challenging and uttery exhausting excercise.
Sometimes, in an attempt to save time - ha ha, I try dress them simultaneously. Here I will have to get Anna into a tight leg lock, otherwise, given the tiniest chance of freedom and she will dash off, naked, out the bedroom through the kitchen, out the door and into the dewey yonder to greet her pony or check on the morning farm activities. While I have the one in a tight body lock and am pulling on her vest with one hand,  I'll use the other hand to get a pair of nickers onto Charley and will be making all sorts of encouraging noises to keep her calm -she is prone to collapsing on the floor in a fit if she feels her socks don't match her pants. But at some point I will loose concentration on Anna and she will get loose and be gone...Now all my focus is on Charley, who will use the time to maximise my attention and find every conceivable problem with her outfit. We will then change it about two more times.
Great, Charley's done. I'll quickly put her in front of the basin with a toothbrush while I dash off to locate Anna. But alas apon returning to the bedroom with a writhing, wild and muddy child under my arm, I will invariably discover that the beautifully dressed Charley is now NAKED and digging in her closet for an alternative outfit!!
Am I really such a bad mother to start loosing it, just a little, at this point? By the time we are all in the car and ready to leave for school my heart is racing, my marriage on the rocks, the nanny in tears and the dog hiding under the kitchen table.
After this process became obviously detrimental to all concerned I started dealing with each child from start to finish - that is underwear through to toilet done and shoes on - individually. This kind of worked, there was slightly less tension, but it was at least a 45 minute excercise which caused me to become quite nasty just as we were nearing the finish line. But that system didn't last long anyway because the girls suddenly went through a rebellion phase where they would point blank refuse to even enter the dressing room.
This is where bribery and corruption come in. The "Bean Jar". If you get dressed you shall receive 4 beans which will subsequently lead to a full jar of beans which means a Treat. This worked really well actually and seemed to break their bad habit of resistance.
At the moment things are running pretty smoothly ,as long as I give them a healthy choice of attire to choose from - all laid out neatly on the bed. You'd swear we were slaves to royalty!
Any tips on how to move forward from here will be greatly welcomed.

1 comment:

  1. Clearly Anna takes after her eccentric Daddy and Mommy and Charly likes bling like her Auntie.....I am sure you have also enjoyed running through the fields naked in your day Mis?? As Charles would say "who needs clothes,waste of time!!"lots of love Auntie Wilja

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