Not Without My Shorts!
My oldest son refuses to wear pants. He prefers to spend his time in summer attire, regardless of the temperature. When told that he will be cold and that he should put on pants he refuses, adamantly stating "My legs are sweaty! I won’t get cold." When physically forced to put on pants he shrieks as if he or his soul is being tortured, tears them off and runs/prances away to find his beloved Grabey (blanky), wraps it around his neck, and sobs quietly into it. The site is truly heartbreaking and terrifying at once.
I have achieved victory a few times by convincing him to wear some pants over his shorts, but these victories are short lived for the second that we arrive at our destination, regardless of where it is, he sits in the entrance, strips down to his shorts and proceeds to happily parade around in his inappropriate attire telling everyone that passes that his legs were sweaty, but now he’s chilly.
When it is time to leave we go through the same routine again, complete with screaming and yelling, often ending in me giving up and following his crazy little self to the car, fully beaten by a two year old.
So, as a mother who has tried every parenting technique that she knows from begging and pleading, to yelling and threatening to bribing and negotiating, I have now succumb to doing what I know best—permanently giving up and rationalizing my actions because we’re never outside that long, he’ll learn eventually, I can’t force him to wear pants, if I don’t let him, we’ll never get out of the house and then I might go crazy…
So, in short, if the boy wants to wear shorts, he’ll wear shorts until he "gets" it that it is, in fact, cold out and that he could be warmer if he were to wear the torturous pants that I have offered. And until that day comes, I’ll suffer through the looks of horror people give to me when my two year old child runs through a parking lot in 4 degree weather wearing nothing but shorts and a t-shirt, yelling that he’s chilly.
Betsy, I am sure you are getting looks of sympathy too; anyone who has lived with a 4 year old knows what trial they can be to rational though. Any chance he will wear knee socks with his shorts? then at least his skin is covered in the below zero wind-chills!
Hi, BTW. Jen pointed me to your blog. My 4 1/2 year old spent the first part of winter telling me he didn't need a coat, he was warm enough. There MN born kids have warmer blood then I!
Hi Betsy. Have you considered a kilt? Just a thought...
I'm sure you are right about the looks, but by maintaining my persistent negative attitude, I am adding to my ever growing collection of witty commentary that I have in my head between myself and the masses that are interested in my life...
And as for added leg warmth, we have tried an assortment of leggings, leg warmers, knee socks, tights and anything else you can think of that covers his chilly calves--all have been refused. The closest he'll accept are longer, too big shorts that are doofy looking, but a tad warmer without offending his fashion sense.
If anyone has seen any new inventions, let us know!!
Im back. You can thank Eric for the fact that I now plague your life.
This time I may have soemthing a little more relevent and even helpful to contribute. All this is my fault.
Back in the day, my mom used to come around in September and steal my shorts. Yup,took 'em right out of my drawer and hid them away God only knows where, and replacerd them with long pants. No questions, no options. She told me it was time to "put away the summer clothes and get out the winter clothes." That was that. Same thing in the Spring in reverse.
I was never crtically attached to my short pants (so to speak)so that all made perfect sense. Of course this was before global warming and there was never a day past the State Fair that the thermometer reached 80 degrees, and we would have our first snow by October 1. My legs never got sweaty. The good old days.
Well it was mentioned to me recently by my son's girlfreind that they did this in her family, and she was shocked to learn that Jason didn't do the same thing. True, I did not teach my son the value of storing away last season's clothes. Clearly I have neglected my Jason's upbrining in this respect. and probably have contributed in some way to the unraveling of the social fabric that encourages this behavior in your son in some sort of weird shorts-wearing domino effect. (Trust me, it's my fault, in some portion, somewhere along the way.) So, like Jacob Marley I bring you a warning before it's too late: Dont be like me, Betsy. Be a better parent. Be like my mom and steal your son's clothes when he isn't looking. He (and his future girlfreind) will thank you for it.