I dress by myself!

The path towards autonomy is a physiological stage of the development of children. Also our son is growing up, he shows his personality day after day and he does it by claiming the desire to "do by his own" even in the simplest situations of everyday life.

One of the clearest signs of autonomy is the will to dress by himself. Often, from three years on, a boy or a girl reject the clothes chosen buy their Mum and they want to decide what to wear to feel comfortable in what, they think, reflects their real nature. Sometimes refusal is expressed through bizarre claims, such as wearing an extremely light jacket in winter or matching parts of different suits, which are absolutely improbable. Families engaged, every morning, in exhausting discussions on what the child should wear at school are not rare, and this has an impact on the mood of everybody.

A useful system consists in dedicating the previous evening to the selection of the clothes, an amusing moment that, at the same time, grants the child with responsibilities, helping him to plan his clothing basing on the climate and the needs of the following day. He will learn then to plan also other aspect of his everyday life and will train him to plan his activities in the future as well. You could, for example, watch the weather forecast together and consider together the activities of the following day for selecting the most appropriate clothes. We can discreetly guide him in his choices but let him free to express his desires and his personal taste, this is the only way which he will learn to evaluate, judge, decide, right like grown children do.