Here is a conversation between Sunshine and myself. As I was picking clothes out for her to wear the other day. Me~ Here is an outfit, lets get dressed.
Sunshine~ Mommy, I want to be rainbow.
Me~ Rainbow is pretty. Now lets get dressed we don't want to be late.
Sunshine ~ MOMMY, I want to be rainbow, you know I don't want to be the same.
(My ah` ha moment, She wants her clothes not to match)
Me~ Oh you want your clothes to not match.
Sunshine~ Sometimes I do. Sometimes I want to dress myself in different colors.
Me~ You dress yourself while we are at home many days.
Sunshine ~I want to dress myself when we leave too.
Me~ OK we will talk about it. We'll pick out times you can dress yourself when we leave. Today we are going to church and this is what we are wearing. So lets get dressed before we are late.
After having this conversation I thought to myself how could you not see her need for more independence. She is six and wants to make more of her own decisions. I usually pick two outfits from her closet and let her choose what she wants to wear. I'm now seeing she needs a little more independence than this. After church I sat down with Sunshine and we talked about modesty. Why modesty is important. While we are dressing ourselves we have to keep modesty in our minds and hearts. I then told her we will have many days that she still picks from two outfits laid out by mom. But, we would also have days she could pick out her own clothes. They would even be days we were leaving the house. We then talked about why she still needed my help sometimes and how everything happens in Gods time. The photograph above is a day I went to pay bills. I thought this would be a good day to start her dressing independence. With Sunshine's idea I even let her little sister Sweet pea pick out her clothes as well. As you can see in the photograph above Little man and I had Cinderella and Snow White riding along with us. I remember looking in my rear view mirror at Cinderella. I was feeling blessed to be the one to help her as she grows. Sure she didn't match but but she looked beautiful. Better than I could have even done. As for Snow White it was her nap time and she missed out on our stop for ice cream. SHHH
This is Little mans week to be in the back seat but with that ice cream he didn't seem to mind.
Thank you Lord for this gift of motherhood.
20 comments:
adorable. and such a great and thought-provoking post.
Catherine,
What a great post! You have covered some great points here as a parent and that is recognizing her need for independence and acting on it. I never thought of rotating the seats in our car. Wow! Simplicity at it's finest.
Love and Hugs ~ Kat
She reminds me of my Bethany. We have been dealing with this issue for a yer or more now. I have given a lot, but there are days that she doesn't get to choose too.
I have come to treasure her unique gift for putting things together. I find it adorable. Sometimes it truly is hideous but most of the time it looks really great and I would never have come up with it in a million years. God has taught me so much through her. Mother is such a blessing.
what a good mommy you are!! she is a beautiful rainbow!!!
i have memories of my oldest dd going shopping in a purple princess costume... everyone must have thought we were crazy but I didn't mind and now she is almost 12 and those purple princess days are far long behind. they grow so fast.
What a lovely post! We're going through some of that dress yourself, undress yourself stuff at our house too. I love the way she described it as a way to be unique. She sounds like she is growing up to be a wonderful girl!
Great post! Love those precious conversations.
my youngest is going through a phase of dressing herself in the most outrageous get ups lately. some days I'm lucky if her shoes match! picking my battles...;)
What beautiful princesses!! It's nice to have a little independance sometimes.
Awww...what a sweet post. I love that that is the outfit she picked out! That's great!
Thanks for stopping by my blog tonight!
Your family is beautiful!
Sweet photo. We had conversations like that! and days like that! My son's big independence thing is sleeping in his shirts and wearing them 2 days! and wearing pj's out ~ could be worse! We are blessed!
Sweet photo. We had conversations like that! and days like that! My son's big independence thing is sleeping in his shirts and wearing them 2 days! and wearing pj's out ~ could be worse! We are blessed!
How beautifully and diplomatically you handled that. Well done to you! :-)
Wow, they are growing up so fast! Good for you for letting them pick out their clothes from time to time. My youngest wanted to wear her bathrobe everywhere for awhile there.... You pick your battles, know what I'm sayin'? ;-)
She is so precious! I love it when they start making their own decisions and expressing their own personality!
I love hearing posts about mothers being grateful for motherhood. Too many posts these days are filled with complaining. Children are wonderful!
so much to be grateful for: love your rainbow princesses and the little man :)
your children are blessed with a wonderful mom ....
This is a sweet post.
I love the pictures of your room below too. There is much pride to be had in making all that yourselves...:)
It alll looks great!
Thank you all so much.... Blessings Catherine
Post a Comment