It is Sunday morning and I am in the midst of a battle with Jenna. A battle that I really want to give into because it's so ridiculous, but the golden rule of parenting tells me that I must be consistent. And I know that when I am not consistent, I become a doormat to my children and it takes a while to correct that behavior.
In general, I like our family to be a little bit dressed up on Sunday--which translates to no jeans. I don't think it's wrong to wear jeans to church--in fact, we have all worn jeans before on a Sunday morning and all wore them last night at the Saturday service, but in general, I like to have one day that we all look a little bit nicer than usual. I guess in my mind, it makes Sunday a little bit different than the rest of the days and I like that.
I asked the girls to get dressed for church this morning on their own. Yes, it would be way easier to pick out their clothes and help them get dressed, but I am also a big fan of teaching independence. Abby came out in her purple sparkly dress (surprise, surprise) and Jenna came out in jeans and a cute shirt. I nicely asked her to put her khaki pants instead of her jeans and she flipped out. She said she looked so cute and didn't want to ruin the outfit.
I so wanted to give in. After all, wearing jeans to church isn't wrong and in the end, it's not a huge deal to me if she did, but at that particular moment it became an issue of her listening and following my directions. I couldn't give in, even though I really, really wanted to.
I showed her the pants that would work with her shirt, and she still refused. I felt like I was getting a preview of the teenaged years. She finally put the pants on, stomped downstairs, and is currently pouting on the couch telling me how I don't understand "fashion" and that it is my fault that she doesn't look cute today. :)
Consistency reigns for the moment and hopefully Jenna will listen to me next time I ask her to get her church clothes on. Until then, I guess I better start studying up on my six year old "fashion."
1 comment:
i have often faced the same battle...not that the clothes are "wrong", but that our behavior is better when we look nicer. and i've caved. now i simply stress "no t-shirts with slogans/writing on them", and no pants with holes in them. and no flip flops. except i lose that battle when i wear sandles. "flip flops are the same as sandles." God's blessings as you chose which battles to fight, because i agree, once you've chosen to take a stand, you've got to be consistent. and i guess you're not worried about flip flops in buffalo in february (or even march or april i'm guessing).
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