Little dudes are creatures of habit. Because they’re so young, they really only know how to do what they’ve already done a hundred times before. Just like most pets, really. Still, that does make for a little difficulty when you’re trying to let them grow up and take care of stuff on their own. Like dressing themselves for school.
See, I figured early on that I wasn’t going to waste the time and effort trying to make each of my little dudes wear what I considered to be well-put-together clothes for school. As long as it wasn’t inappropriate and wouldn’t disrupt the class (imagine shirts with the words kill or something like that on it) I didn’t care what they wore. I figured it would make my mornings a lot easier if I let them decide what to wear instead of fighting and forcing and flinging clothes at them.
I’m all about the easy. Mostly. Unless it would be funny and then you know what I’ll choose.
Anyway, while I didn’t care what they wore, I started to notice that I was washing the same six shirts every week for each little dude. They were starting to get into a very, very deep rut. I had to try and find a solution.
I thought I was pretty clever, with the solution I finally ended up with. Turns out, I’m a lot less clever than I thought. I recently talked to the mother of Speed Racer’s friend and she said she had been doing the exact same thing for years. *sigh*
What we’d been doing is rotating the clothes in the drawer, or on the hanger. We’d hang up the shirts or put them in the drawer and the little dudes would pull out whatever shirt was on top, or in front of the rack of clothes. So we switched it up. We’d put the clothes in a different area each time the shirts got put away after a washing. That way, a new batch of shirts would be on top each week. And, because the little dudes didn’t actually look at what shirt they selected, they’d be wearing something different each week.
And it worked great. Until the little dudes got older. Sarcasmo and Zippy the Monkey Boy have been old enough to actually pay attention to what they’re wearing for a few years now so switching around the clothes doesn’t really work. Aside from that, it’s their job to put their clothes away each week. So now I’m starting to see the same shirts repeating themselves. It’s like second grade all over again.
However, as I’ve always told them, I’ll always be meaner and sneakier. I’ve started stealing their shirts in the laundry. When they fold up their clothes, they’re always a few shirts short. Which forces them to get more creative in the closets.
Well, they’re not really in the closets, but you get the idea.
– Richard
Tags: A Dude's Guide to Kids, anger, clothes, Creatures, Creatures Of Habit, dress, dude, Dude's, early, Exact Same Thing, friend, Fun, funny, Habit, Hanger, hate, Hundred Times, Laundry, little dude, little dudes, Monkey Boy, old, pets, richard, sarcasm, Sarcasmo, school, Second Grade, Speed Racer, T Shirt, young