Renee Emerson

For about a month, zu had a problem that we could not for the life of us figure out. I won’t go into detail, to save her from future embarrassment, lets just say she was potty trained and Regressed.

We tried taking her to the pediatrician (tummy problems?), tried ignoring it (a cry for attention?), considered punishing it (especially after the wiping-it-on-the-floor incident…), and the potty-charts upon-potty-charts, but nothing seemed to work.

Then my friend jenn mentioned that maybe this is a Control issue, not a rebellion or necessarily emotional issue like we’d thought. We’re planning a move and I’m pregnant, so there’s a lot going on in z’s little 3year old world. A lot that she has no control over.

so I stopped doing what they typically advise you to do with 3 year olds—give them a couple options of what to wear in the morning, to limit choices—and instead let her have full reign of her closet.

the problem stopped! She loves picking out her own clothes—she lays out her outfits the night before and sometimes also before nap, for those afternoon wardrobe changes. And sometimes also her sister’s outfits, though junie owns a disappointing amount of “casual dresses”.

If we had only known it was as easy as letting her mix leopard print, stripes and tutu-skirts, we would have had a lot easier time this winter. Fingers crossed that the success continues….