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Wow. I have no idea what I'm gonna do if my Lo refuses to put clothes on. I'll probably force the clothes on her. kickin and crying.

Luckily for us, since we started acknowledging RJ's emotions he's been a LOT more agreeable in the mornings. I think he trusts us more, and we're gentler with him. I've given up trying to get his coat on though-- if he won't let us put it on in the car, I just leave it off and wrap him in it when we get out.

I haven't had to deal with this yet so I'm so curious to hear what works. I would think that we would somehow just force him to but I can imagine how hard that would be. These little ones are strong! My son isn't that interested/disinterested in clothes. He just wears that we give him. Do most kids hate getting dressed or is this something that mainly little girls do? (as you can tell i'm trying to mentally prepare for when my little girl arrives!!)

My LO is 17 1/2 months and hasn't started revolting yet but I dread the day that she does 'cause she is really quite stubborn......and strong. I feel you on the body contortions - LO has been doing this back-bending thing when she dislikes something.

@Mrs. Jacks: Teaching DD how to dress herself revoluntionized our morning routine.

She used to be just as difficult as your DD, @Andrea: We started encouraging her to dress herself (with a little help, still) and now she doesn't fight us nearly as much. With anything that she's resisting, I always ask her, "Do you want to do it yourself, like a big girl? Or do you want mommy to do it for you, like a baby?" This goes for everything: getting dressed, getting in her car seat, feeding herself, etc... 90% of the time she'll shape up immediately and do it herself (and she gets huge praises for it!).

@Andrea: Lol, I can sympathize! I remind myself that "stubborness" is really "determination," but some days are harder than others.

I used to wait around for DD to do everything in her own time, but now that we have DS, too, I just can't take 30 minutes to get her into her car seat every time we need to go somewhere! Here's what I do instead:

1. Open up DD's door and tell her to get in/buckle herself in while I put DS in. She'll usually crawl into the front seat, instead, and pretend like she's driving.
2. When I get done putting DS away, I tell her that we need to go and I need her to be a big girl and buckle herself into her seat.
3. As long as she is making progress toward getting into her seat and sitting down so we can buckle, I just keep telling her she's a big girl, she's doing a good job, etc... If she refuses to cooperate or starts dawdling, I ask if she wants to do it herself or if she wants mommy to do it for her.
4. Most of the time that works. If it doesn't, I tell her I'm counting until three and then I'm going to do it for her. I count at a normal pace (not to fast but not dragging it out either, takes about 10-15 seconds).
5. If she's still resisting, I'll man-handle her into her seat, kicking and screaming.
6. When she calms down a little, I remind her that getting into her seat "like a big girl" is much easier/funner and then I encourage her to try to do it "like a big girl" next time.

Being stricter and not letting her take so much time has helped. At first, it ended up being a lot of tantrums and me forcing the issue; now she pretty much takes the lead. I started changing my approach after reading Mr. Bee's blog post a while back about changing Charlie's behavior. I think having too many choices/too much free range can be scary and overwhelming for kids, and I think that's why DD was so difficult for a while. She was choosing what to do and when to do it, and it was making life difficult for all of us. Now, unless she is mostly autonomous in completing a task, she doesn't get a choice; she has to do it my way on my time, and I've found she's doing a lot better with this approach.