Han and I have been in a bit of a fashion struggle for about the last year. For the most part, I let her wear what she wants to, but there are times when what she wants to wear is not what I want her to wear for a particular occasion. We have a little power struggle, a little compromise and she leaves the house looking like I want her to.
Sometime in August I was getting some clothes out for her and noticed something behind the dresser in her closet. As I pulled out one of her outfits her eyes got really big. I said, "Hannah, you tell me the truth, what is this doing behind your dresser!?"
Han: "I didn't want to wear it."
Me: "Han this makes me very upset. You're in trouble."
Han: "Am I going to get a spanking?"
Me: "No, but I am going to do something. I'll let you know later today." (something I say when I'm not sure what my next move is)
Later in the day I went to her and said, "Han, I've decided what your punishment is going to be. We've been talking about the kids in Africa who are starving and poor. Most of those kids don't have anything cute to wear. So tomorrow, you're going to dress up like one of those kids from Africa."
That night, I got out an old, black t-shirt and slashed it up a bit along with some cut off shorts that I also mangled. The next day she had to wear the ensemble. She didn't have school and I didn't parade her around, but I could tell that it made an impact and since then our struggles haven't been as bad.
We'll the other day we were about to leave and Han had a purple and a red flip flop on. I said, "Han, I want you to go put on some shoes that match your outfit so that we can leave."
She didn't want to and I started to tell her why I wanted her to change.
She looked at me and in her best "Mommy tone" she said, "Mom.... you should just be thankful that I have shoes to wear!"
1 comment:
Hey! No worries on the B-day! It was a lovely day and I have all I ever wanted!
You are going to have your hands full with this girl! She's a smarty-pants!
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