I was trying to find clothes for my kids to wear today - and there weren't none.

My oldest changes clothes way too much every day. I keep telling her that whatever she picks out in the morning has to get her through the day - unless we have some serious temperature changes (that's fodder for another thread). It doesn't work. She's one of these stylish girls that just has to keep changing her clothes to fit her mood.

Now, she thinks that every time she changes her own clothes, she's gotta change her sister's as well.

Well, when she's doing her own laundry, she can do that. But for now, when I'm doing the laundry, I do it once a week. I've done inventory. Mommy, who's working, wears the same outfit twice a week. Jeans will last her three or four days (just a couple hours a day). OD, she gets about 2 hours out of her jeans and puts 'em in the dirty clothes.

Have any of you out there in FHLand faced this? If so, how did/are you get/ting around it/it?

It seems to me that once we run out of clothes, we just run around in shorts. Then I gotta hear, "Daddy, I'm cold" all day. I guess I'm not in the dorm anymore.

How old is she? If she's big enough to reach the dials (even while standing on a chair) she's big enough to do laundry. Maybe that would slow her down.

Isn't she 6 Clay? Which means, she'd probably think doing laundry was amusing, but it might not work out they way you'd like.

First, her doing laundry isn't the issue. It's being obedient I think. If you tell her to stop changing her clothes, she needs to stop changing her clothes. So you need to establish boundaries and consquences.

I know your kids are home schooled, so they probably don't really "need" to change their clothes more than once. But my daughter has school clothes and play clothes (she's also 6). When she gets home from school, off come school clothes and she needs to find play clothes. Maybe you can meet your DD halfway and do something like this. Allow her to dress up a bit before you begin your lessons, and then at the end of the day she can change again.

OK, so if that's the boundary you establish, you need a consquence for when she's disobedient. What does she love? Take it away if she doesn't stop changing her clothes 10 times a day.

At this age, it's all about independence. You have to give a little, but then so does she. If she's not obedient on these little things, where will you be with the bigger things?

Great post!

yeah....what Lynn said!

I do laundry once a week too...not at the stage yet where people are running out of clothes...

She's gotta learn consequences. You do laundry once a week. If she runs out of clothes before then & has to run around in shorts or pj's or whatever....that's the consequence. If you don't think that would bother her, then I'd do something like what Lynn was saying....try the meeting halfway thing, say you let her change twice in one day BUT the clothes do NOT go in the dirty laundry basket, unless of course they truly are dirty!

If she persists in changing multiple times AND putting them in the dirty clothes, you might have to resort to something as drastic as having her pick out 2 outfits, then putting all her other clothes out of reach, like in your bedroom under lock & key....sounds like a pain but would probably get the message across!

I'll leave this thread to you....ah....moms.

Gee, thanks.

:SHANIA:

To the rest of you, good ideas. I'll begin putting them into practice. See how it works out.

I'll keep you posted!

Almost all covered there -- except she can't reach the bottom of the washer tub. I've got her helping me with most of the rest. She's an excellent sock matcher! I'm not. I'm color-blind and light pink=white. One time, I bleached a pink sock 'cuz I thought it was white...

I am always dong laundry! Like almost daily. There are five people in this house, one of whom has reflux and spits up 20 times after he has a bottle. I also have a three year old boy(read: Mr. Mess) and my 4 year old daughter likes to change her clothes a couple of times a day too, sometimes. She usually leaves her clothes on the floor in her room and they get lost under the bed or crammed in the closet somewhere. I hope you can get your girl trained. I'm working on mine, and it is definately a process. Last week my husband and I went through the house gathering socks...from the closet, toybox, between the bed and the wall, behind books on the shelf..I am still finding them here and there. At least I didn't spend money on newones1 We found at least 7 or 8 pairs!!

Brit will do that sometimes... then again Brit will also put on old clothes that don't fit and hide them when she takes them off because Misty and I will give them to her cousin, or toss em.

Usually just the threat of a spanking will get Brit to stop...

Don't know what works for your child....

I'd say if she keeps changing after you told her to stop, to put the Clothes in your control so she ahs to come ask you if she can change her clothes because she has nothing in her closet.

Then again my kids think I'm too strict sometimes...

Man I hate feeling like I'm my dad.....

Spankings: they generally don't work with her. In fact, she talked her way out of one the other day 'cuz she reminded us of this fact. So, we told her no sweets for a week. Then she started bawling and asked for the spanking. The sweets would've taken her through Christmas Day and beyond...

Yeah, I've thought about that. It's such a pain. Like taking on even more jobs that I really don't need to take on. If she would just listen...

I've been told that I yell a lot but I don't follow through. Yeah, the kids are scared when I yell, but it doesn't stick. Now, a few days back, I was trying to get the kids to clean up the living room. They kept playing around. So Drill Sergeant Daddy kicked in. I just needed my Smokey Bear hat.

That's bad when they want the spanking! hilarious!