Do any of you have this problem day after day???

[mama_Agnieszka]

My 5 year old and 3.5 year old REFUSE to get dressed each and every freaking morning! We don't do preschool or daycare so usually there is no rush... but the no need to rush part turns into "no, not yet" for hours on end! It's not that I mind them being in pj's till 10 or so... but after that, I just don't like it! The pj's get dirty and I don't have as many of them as I do of day clothes... and I want us to be out of the house after lunch... and most days, they are still fighting getting dressed by lunch time!

Help!!!

[BellinghamCrunchie]

We don't have the PJ problem because DD prefers to be naked - so we do have the getting dressed problem. I usually don't ask her to get dressed until its time to go someplace. Then I will help her get dressed (she likes being helped) if needed.

I remember as a child lounging around in my PJs as long as I could because they were warm and more comfortable than my day clothes. It might help if you warmed up their day clothes in the dryer, and made sure they were putting on comfy day clothes like soft cottons or sweats. But what will really help the most is putting them to sleep in their day clothes and forgetting about the pajamas. Then there's no battle.

[Ruthla]

Why not just let them sleep in clothes, and change them before bed each night?

Heck, my 13yo doesn't even wear pajamas most of the time. She usually sleeps in the clothes she wore all day, then puts on fresh clothes before school.

[Gentle~Mommy :)]

Do they watch TV in the morning? maybe you could have a TV off rule, until they are dressed?

just a thought, we don't have tv but I know many do.

[Past_VNE]

We do what Ruthla says. We don't have dedicated PJs, mostly. Lots of cute "sweats" (cotton pants, but not true sweat pants) and polos/rugby shirts that are cozy/warm/comfortable, but still good looking. He puts on a clean outfit before bed, so we don't get the bed dirty or risk bedbugs, and wears that the next day unless we are going out of the house. Then, he changes his pants for jeans or other nicer bottoms.

[greenmomhappymom]

Could you try making it a game or offer a small "reward" (sticker, pick what's for lunch etc) and who ever gets dressed first can choose of have the "reward"...I know not are people like to use this style of parenting but if you are at your wits end and think it will work, might be worth a try...

[metis]

We used to but now we make it a game - he either has to beat Daddy (or me) to get dressed. It normally works, he's kind of into "winning" at the moment!
Sometimes letting him choose what to wear (from a choice of 2 things) helped too.
When he was littler, I used to set a timer and we would "race" to see if we could get all his clothes on before the alarm went off.

Before any of that though, I used to chase him round the room for each piece of clothing - then he would go "floppy" which made him hard to dress. It took at least 20 minutes, if not more just to get the clothes on and then he would often start to take them off again! I think games are the way to go!

[littlemizflava]

is there a reason they dont like to get dressed? (dont like what you picked out, takes too long to pick out their clothes)
i use a mixture of things-
if we are not going out they can stay in their pj's longer or if they are going to hit the laundry i dont care if they stay on all day but they must come off if we are going out.
i put pants and tops on hangers for my ds (3) to pick the top he wants to wear. my dd picks her clothing.
some days i do pick and put out clothing for both of them.
we do the race thing. eather to see who can win between them or if they can beat me.

[becoming]

I have the opposite problem! My younger two are ready to get dressed all the way to their shoes the moment we get out of bed, and it drives me nuts. I'm not even awake enough to function, and they're wanting me to pick out a whole outfit!

I think the suggestion of letting them sleep in (comfortable) clothes that can pass as day clothes is a really good idea. That way you can get away with going out of the house in their "sleeping clothes" if you're having too hard of a time getting them dressed.

[laurabfig]

Glad to see I am not the only mom in the world who lets my kids sleep in their clothes. One less thing to do in the morning!
We use PJ's on the weekends and vacations, and they are extra excited when they get to wear them.

[onyxravnos]

we dont do pjs because of this. at night ds either takes a bath or alternatively i declare his shirt dirty (or whatever to get him to agree to take it off) and we change his clothing into whatever he is going to wear the next day and then he sleeps in that.

no problems. only have problems when we try Pjs.

[francesruben]

Yes! I had exactly the same situation! I gave up trying, bought and made lots of pyjamas and only insisted on DD wearing clothes when we left the house, which she usually agreed to, as long as she could put the pj's on as soon as we got home again. She's relaxed a bit now and sometimes asks to wear a particular dress or top and often wears them to bed instead of pj's.

[LCBMAX]

All of the above solutions, plus:
1. making myself not care if we go out in pjs
2. starting a game with water before I want to go out so he gets wet and wants to change

[jamsmama]

Wow...sounds EXACTLY like our mornings!

[BellaClaudia]

we somehow never press issues of how the kiddo is dressed for the night and
it went through major chnages over the 4 plus period..

from .. pj all day and no way you won't dress me mama no way no how
and if you want me to go some place take me as I am or no way I am going..

through:... please change me from this pj as soon as I open my eyes..

though.. I am going to sleep in pj pants but I need to put back on the day t-shirt I was wearing..

so on and so forth..

here we go like.. whatever.. sure, no problem.. we took her in her pj to the stores and places since she does not go to school nobody really noticed anyways and some pj actually are hard to tell that they are pj's

I ended up anyways having like 10 sets of pj easily.. and I buy at least one size up or two.. as I never like how little coverage the pants and top gives so the kidneys are not expsed by larger sizes as just right sizes so we have
tons of pjs lasting on and on and on..

We involve Dd in choosing wardrobe and sometime that helps if we needed that.. as instead asking to starting getting dress and hearing "not now.."
I would take her to the closet and we start going over what are the options .. do you want to wear this Kitty shirt, or do you want this Spider pants.. and before you know it the little mind forgets all aobut rebeling and switches to the .. let's do it mode..

also I remember being pressed for time few times and I needed her to be dressed up to some place pronto so I would just build around.. like..
let's say we needed to go to the ballet class.. I would say..
so.. all kids are already dressed for the class and they are leaving their homes so if you want we can stay here and play and we can let them go and have all the fun without us, what do you think? and the answer always was..
let's hurry up mama I want to go.

other trick was to say that we can go as you are but people surely will think that you are going to sleep and you came to the store in your criib/bed instead of a car :-)

above all I do always help my 4 year old dd to get dressed. I don't think that it is some sort of developmental problem, she is taking over when and how she feels fit and I don't have anything better to do anyways and
she will and does dress herself up at all other times at home when she feels like to change or for dress up plays but when it is time to go out I will controllt he process to make it swift and we can be out of the door by my standards.

other way to get your kids out of the pj's should be to offer them a dress up clothes.. we got tons of princess dresses and alikes.. and of course once she sees them she will be out of the pjs by the time you sneeze.. and in something.. and from there she never goes back to pj's.

good luck.

[BellaClaudia]

http://www.target.com/Infant-Girls-B...&searchSize=30

just a suggestion.. we love those sets from target, they came to be
7 dollars a set as you get two of them in the set and you can mix and match them.. we usually buy 4 - 5 or so the sames and that is even easier to mix and match if osmeting is in the wash..

I don't know i fyou have targets in canada but you might want to check..
they are 100% cotton...

avoid the ones that have embroidery as they might be itchy..
we have few of them but we solve it by putting cami type undershirt for nights.

[sanguine_speed]

We're dealing with the same thing, except we do have to get ready and go out in the mornings. And our child will not wear clothes to bed.

It sucks. You're not alone, mama.

[Smithie]

We put on clothes before we go downstairs to breakfast. If everybody isn't changed, it's not time to go downstairs yet. Easy peasy.

Of course, if you have a kid who'd also rather skip breakfast, that method wouldn't work.

[blondiechrissy]

We have this problem too. I know most if it is my fault though. I'm 32 weeks pregnant and stopped working early in my pregnancy. Well the problem is that I've never been able to be a SAHM, so every day felt like Saturday until very recently. So, we've gotten into this funk of DD and Mommy staying in our jammies until we absolutly have to go somewhere (like we've run out of food!) We talk, play games, take naps/baths together, watch a few movies and before I know it, it's time to cook dinner and DH is home, and when he asks what we did all day to him it sounds like nothing but I don't consider it nothing. When we do go somewhere, I just avoid the fight by letting her wear dress up clothes. I doubt that this is your issue but, I've also figured out that I cannot try to dress her before getting dressed myself. It's just not going to happen.

[sanguine_speed]

Originally Posted by Smithie

We put on clothes before we go downstairs to breakfast. If everybody isn't changed, it's not time to go downstairs yet. Easy peasy.

Of course, if you have a kid who'd also rather skip breakfast, that method wouldn't work.

You got it! (the last part).