Holey Pants? Not it this family!

My daughter and I have had it pretty easy on the relationship front.  She is normally pretty easy going and I am normally pretty able to go with the flow (with her only BTW - I am NOT a go with the flow person whatsoever).  One breakthrough area with me has been her wardrobe.  I don't need a girlie-girl - and I PRIDE myself in not needing to dress Maddie in all pink and frills and lace and dresses. Trust me at 4 she  can ROCK her blue jeans and mud brown Henry Vilas Zoo t-shirt!  Would it KILL HER though to not DEMAND to find the most:

1. Ill-fitting
2. Stained
3. Holey
4. Eye sore

parings of clothing every freaking morning and refuse to wear all of the:

1. Clean
2. Weather appropriate
3. Matching
4. Just plain damned cute

clothing that she owns.

I have allowed myself to let her have choices in what she wears even if the colors clash or its actually a pajama top (only once).  I do put my foot down on dirty and full of holes.  I don't care if she comes back from school looking that way, but I will be damned if she goes in looking like it.

Which is the discussion we had this morning.....while she was on the toilet......clutching her purple leggings because they were her teacher's favorite color.....with me ripping them out of her hands because they were filthy and full of huge holes. It took 30 minutes to get her to agree to something else and by agree I mean we were running so late I threatened to drop her off in her underwear if she didn't choose something else.  She eventually released her kung fu grip on the leggings and told me that this house wasn't fair and she didn't want to live here anymore (which she thought better of when I mentioned that snacks weren't readily available 'on the road').

She did finally manage to choose some clothes that fit, were clean and had no holes (although they didn't match but a small concession on my part).  After we both apologized to each other for the very crappy morning we induced upon each other Maddie asked me on the way to school why I made her change her clothes.  I had to remind her that pants (in all varieties) are important and that is just how we roll in this family!

Tonight we pre-chose an outfit for tomorrow that I approve of (because I hid all of the stuff that I don't).  Done and Done!  This motherhood thing is like being a magician sometimes - smoke and mirrors baby!