Ever since their arrival, my children are s-l-o-w-l-y teaching me humility. Or maybe I’m just a slow learner, I don’t know. But the lessons keep coming.
The week before Christmas, the noisy boys had a holiday sing-a-long at their preschool. They keep the whole thing fairly low-key since the kids are so jazzed up over Christmas already, but still, it’s a chance to show off their friends and their school to Mom and Dad. The noisy boys get pretty excited about it.
On the day of the sing-a-long, the boys came down the stairs, dressed and ready to go—Twin A was wearing faded navy blue pull-on pants and a slightly different color blue play shirt. Twin B had his favorite hand-me-down baggy blue sweatpants (aka: cozy pants) on and a striped play shirt. I kept my expression neutral and mentioned that maybe they’d like to dress up today, since it’s a special day.
“How about your new sweater vest and button up shirt outfits that you wore to church last week? The ones with the cozy corduroy pants? You both looked so handsome in those. I’ll bet your teacher would like to see those nice outfits.” I asked, hoping to convince at least one of them.
“No. I like this outfit.” Twin A responded.
“Yeah. Me too.” Agreed Twin B.
“Don’t you want to wear something just a little bit fancier?” I tried again.
“But I AM fancy,” exclaimed Twin B, “this is a VERY fancy shirt!”
So I gave up, and off we went to the sing-a-long. I should back up here and say that all summer long I really encouraged them to be independent (after all, we had another baby on the way). They are responsible for making their beds (however it turns out is just the way we like it), getting themselves dressed, and putting their dirty clothes in the hamper. At five, you don’t get to make a ton of decisions, and I believe that unless you’re on your way to a wedding, what you wear should be one of them. Fortunately, when you’re five, the general public gives you plenty of fashion grace.
Anyway, back to the program. There we were, sitting in a semi-circle with the other parents, while the noisy boys proudly sang “S-A-N-T-A” to the tune of BINGO. They were cute in a ragamuffin kind of way. Meanwhile, most of their classmates were wearing Christmas sweaters and red velvet dresses, and there, right in the middle of them, were my boys in their grungy play clothes. It was a proud moment, let me tell you.
They didn’t seem to mind being under dressed, and their preschool teacher had a good laugh with me. I keep assuring her that we DO own nice clothes, even though they keep showing up in the same grungy sweatpants every day. Thankfully, she’s also a believer in letting kids learn by doing. At least someone is on my side! ☺
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I was crackin' up the whole time I read this! Fashion for a 14-year old boy doesn't change much—except he wants YOU to have them washed and let's you know this at 10 PM the night before he needs them. (Which is pretty funny in itself!)
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