https://boards.hellobee.com/ Pregnancy, Baby and Parenting blog, by Hellobee en Fri, 07 Aug 2026 17:22:20 +0000 https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/excessive-clothing-changes#post-2590945 Fri, 22 Jul 2016 21:25:07 +0000 PinkElephant 2590945@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@caterw: OMG YES, we went through the "baby dolls wearing little sister's (real) clothes thing, too. Fortunately DD2 's clothes are too big for dolls now that she's two...I'm sure DD 1 will start stealing the new baby's clothes though. She's already been walking around the house in a pair of 12m sweatpants she stole from the donation pile. </p> <p>So, so, glad to hear someone else's little fashionista does this as well.</p> <p>Thanks all for some good ideas! We'll be implementing them. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/excessive-clothing-changes#post-2590903 Fri, 22 Jul 2016 19:29:52 +0000 caterw 2590903@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>LMAO because my 2.5 year old does this also (and she likes to get all of her baby dolls dressed in real clothes from her drawers). She wears (at a minimum)- an outfit to start the day, a fresh apron or bib for each meal, clean PJs for nap with hat mittens and new socks, a new outfit after nap, and PJs that are different from her nap PJs with a different set of hat/mittens/socks for bedtime. She also likes to change outfits randomly during the day and rummage in her drawers if she feels like her outfit "doesn't match" or "needs more pink". She has also gotten in the habit of wanting to change her hairstyle and hair accessories constantly so she keeps getting out hairbands, bows, ponytail holders, ribbons, etc ARGH. It's so much extra laundry- she somehow manages to get everything visibly dirty (like blows her nose on the nap PJs) so I can't fold them and put them back after 2 hours of use. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/excessive-clothing-changes#post-2590842 Fri, 22 Jul 2016 17:07:41 +0000 Mrs. Sketchbook 2590842@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@T.H.O.U.: yes agree! I started doing a lazy Marie kondo method of sort of rolling everything up, but yeah...if the drawer closes I'm good with it being a huge mess. I manage to have things folded about twice a month haha! But my kid cares nothing for matching items and wears t shirts to bed so he literally has a bottoms drawer and a tops drawer. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/excessive-clothing-changes#post-2590718 Fri, 22 Jul 2016 14:36:02 +0000 JerricaBenton 2590718@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>My lo also likes to change clothes many times throughout the day. It doesn't really bother me, but the clothes strewn around the house and not knowing what's clean or dirty irritates me. Her dress-up clothes are very accessible so she mostly dresses in that stuff. As far as socks and undies and regular clothes, every night/morning I put out her undies, a pair of socks, and a comfy outfit that she can put on. Even if we change to go out, I fold everything back up and put it in the same place so when we come home she's not rummaging around for more socks, etc. Seems to help a bit! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/excessive-clothing-changes#post-2590677 Fri, 22 Jul 2016 13:22:17 +0000 T.H.O.U. 2590677@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Mrs. Sketchbook: I also gave up on folding a lot of clothes. If she gets them out of her drawer, I have her put them away (sometimes she tries to fold them but not neatly). I'm not going to worry about wrinkles. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/excessive-clothing-changes#post-2590672 Fri, 22 Jul 2016 13:08:43 +0000 Mrs. Sketchbook 2590672@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@PinkElephant: my son also wore a fireman costume to swim lessons. I figure he will realize when it is more trouble than it is worth. But I did draw the line at the zip up spacesuit to swim lessons because I just don't have the patience to unzip and unhook that at the pool. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/excessive-clothing-changes#post-2590671 Fri, 22 Jul 2016 13:05:41 +0000 Mrs. Sketchbook 2590671@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>This would drive me nuts. Still I think I would let her do the changes but implement natural consequences:</p> <p>1. I wouldn't wash any clothes that weren't soiled. My DS cab sometimes wear a pair of shorts for two days until they are dirty enough for washing.</p> <p>2. I'd focus less on having her change and more on having her clean up her mess. So like, she can change if the clothes remain in her room. I've given up somewhat on controlling room cleanliness. We clean up about once a week but considering i have the rest of the house to clean up, it isn't worth my time to overfocus on his space.</p> <p>3. I think if she takes too long to get ready then she doesn't get to go do the fun thing. This is something I've had to do to my kid when he refuses to clean up before an outing. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/excessive-clothing-changes#post-2590659 Fri, 22 Jul 2016 12:30:02 +0000 T.H.O.U. 2590659@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@PinkElephant: Have you thought about trying to get her to pick outfits the night before? Maybe let her pick and lay out her one outfit for the day. Tell her when she wakes up, that is her only outfit for the day. If she takes it off to do dress up, that is the outfit that goes back on when she's done. Same thing if she changes into a dance outfit. </p> <p>We have a similar issue but because we are both WOH and the kids are in full time daycare it doesn't matter so much to go through it once or twice a day. </p> <p>Another option that they do at daycare is to only let them put on dress up clothes OVER their current outfit. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/excessive-clothing-changes#post-2590658 Fri, 22 Jul 2016 12:27:08 +0000 MrsSRS 2590658@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Can you remove all non seasonal appropriate clothes? And I would definitely require that she put things away after she takes them off. 4 is plenty old to manage that. Maybe tell her she needs to put undies on first thing and leave them on. Then leotards, etc won't need washing. If she doesn't want to put the undies on or put away what she's taken off, one strike and she's done for the half day. Put up a baby gate and no more access until after lunch. The one strike and done helps fix the listening issue quickly. Especially if the consequence is by half days, then she's likely to get another chance the same day, but it's still a nice long time to drive the point home.<br /> Maybe start with a conversation. I see that you love to change clothes. That's so fun! Here are our rules for that... </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/excessive-clothing-changes#post-2590645 Fri, 22 Jul 2016 11:54:48 +0000 PinkElephant 2590645@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>If nothing else, this is a good reminder for me to keep the girls' wardrobes minimal - less for them to want to wear/go through! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/excessive-clothing-changes#post-2590644 Fri, 22 Jul 2016 11:54:18 +0000 PinkElephant 2590644@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Truth Bombs: Good point. I've been making a point recently that it's her job to take her (actually) dirty laundry to her laundry basket, so this wouldn't be much more of a stretch. I may try to focus my energy on trying to make her clean up after herself rather than to not do it in the first place. Preschoolers do love choice! </p> <p>You're right, it doesn't all need to be washed - unfortunately more of it does than I expected when this first started - leotards without underwear, whatever she's wearing at meal time gets spilled on....it adds up faster than I thought it would! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/excessive-clothing-changes#post-2590642 Fri, 22 Jul 2016 11:50:53 +0000 Truth Bombs 2590642@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@PinkElephant: At 4 years old I think she can handle cleaning up and even folding items. If she wears something for a short period of time it really doesn't need to be washed (unless it's underwear). So I would just tell her that if she wants to change clothes, she needs to fold and put away whatever she takes off. And if she makes a mess looking through her drawers or your laundry basket, she needs to clean it up. So it's her choice, change her clothes and do the work associated with that, or don't . </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/excessive-clothing-changes#post-2590637 Fri, 22 Jul 2016 11:42:36 +0000 PinkElephant 2590637@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@erinbaderin: I know...it definitely was funny even to me at first. Now it's just frustrating :)</p> <p>@Foodnerd81: @ShootingStar: We have a fabulous selection of dress up clothes. Maybe I need to take them back out so they're super easily accessible (they're in a laundry basket in her closet) and put them in a toybox in the family room or something. Or I could even do the same with some regular clothes. Good thought on redirecting.</p> <p>@Mrsbells: Yeah, we're in that "listening is optional" phase...so saying "No" isn't particularly effective unless I'm willing to physically stop her from changing. Sometimes I am willing to do that, but I have to be ready for an EPIC tantrum when I take clothing out of her hands, prevent her from getting to her room. And I don't really want to force her into clothes unless I really have to (like when we're going somewhere immediately). It feels weird preventing a kid from accessing their own stuff, but maybe putting childproof locks on the drawers for a while would drive the point home enough that she'd quit rooting around in order to be allowed access again. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/excessive-clothing-changes#post-2590603 Fri, 22 Jul 2016 10:40:20 +0000 Mrsbells 2590603@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@PinkElephant: can you just say no? my 4 year old loves dressing up as do most girls that age I think, but I dont let her do that. Sometimes i let her play dress up with my things but its not a daily thing. she has to ask before she can take her clothes off. or pick something new out of her dresser </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/excessive-clothing-changes#post-2590597 Fri, 22 Jul 2016 10:25:54 +0000 erinbaderin 2590597@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I have no suggestions for this, but your descriptions of her various outfits made me laugh and laugh. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/excessive-clothing-changes#post-2590594 Fri, 22 Jul 2016 10:22:20 +0000 ShootingStar 2590594@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>That would make me crazy! LOL. Can you maybe giver her a small area with dress up clothes that she could put over her regular clothes and she could change them as much as she wants? Maybe 3 or 4 outfits so it's not crazy? </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/excessive-clothing-changes#post-2590593 Fri, 22 Jul 2016 10:21:25 +0000 Foodnerd81 2590593@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Long shot but do you think having a trunk of dress up clothes that she can play with would help? Even if they aren't "dress up" clothes, just like, a handful of outfits that only go in that bin? </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/excessive-clothing-changes#post-2590589 Fri, 22 Jul 2016 10:16:26 +0000 PinkElephant 2590589@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>My four year old DD's desire to constantly change her clothes is becoming problematic. I admire her independence to dress/undress herself, and her confidence in her choices, but I fee like the behavior is getting out of hand.</p> <p>For example, this morning she has worn, in this order:<br /> - Leggings and a long sleeve shirt (which I told her was not appropriate for the high 90's temps) she got out of her own drawer<br /> - Just undies (I made her wear them to eat breakfast)<br /> - a ballet outfit (minus the undies)<br /> - a skirt and top she pulled from my clean laundry basket<br /> - her pajamas from last night (plus a new pair of undies she got from her own drawer)<br /> - her sister's underwear (which really upset her sister)<br /> - I think she's currently naked - she's hiding in her tent sulking because I took away her sister's underwear .</p> <p>It's 11 AM, and she got dressed for the first time around 8. The other day she had about 4 outfits on before we got out the door at 9.</p> <p>Besides the excess laundry this creates, in doing this she's scattering her discarded clothing choices around the house, creating chaos in her drawers/on her floors as she surveys her options, and upending my clean folded laundry basket....so much extra work for me!</p> <p>I've reinstalled the baby gate on our stairs to prevent her from going to her room by herself to get fresh clothes, and have tried explaining to her that when Mommy has extra clean up and laundry, that's less time to play...but she doesn't seem to care.</p> <p>Any advice?! It's such a silly thing to be fighting with a four year old over, but it's pushing me to my limit on patience! </p>