Monday, October 17, 2011

The Dress-up Dilemma


If you've been reading the blog for any length of time, you know that we are big on pretending and dressing up around here.


Lately, Alex has developed an obsession with a new blue knit dress Amelia got. It has ruffles around the bottom and he calls it his "Dora dress."


He's worn it every day for almost a week, and even fought with his sister over whose turn it was to wear it.

So the other day Alex was in that dress before breakfast. We were getting ready to go to the Y and he asked me if he could wear his dress. I hesitated.

That night at supper I posed the question to Jeff. "Would you let Alex wear his blue dress to the Y?" I waited for his answer before I would tell him how I had handled the situation.

Jeff thought about it a bit, and then said, "He's three. He can wear whatever he wants. It doesn't mean anything."

I thought that was very liberated of him, and I agreed 100 percent.

Which is why I told Alex he couldn't wear his dress to the Y.

Yep, that's right. I said "No."

I didn't explain my answer to Alex, but the reason I said no is because I was afraid that someone would look at him and say, "You're a boy. You shouldn't be wearing a dress."

And I didn't want anyone to take that away from him.

Alex is three, and he should have the joy of playing dress up without worrying about what others think.

How about you? What would you have done?

© Trippin' Mama 2011

7 comments:

Kaia said...

I would not have let him either. I probably would let him at home but honestly would not encourage it.

Suzy said...

Neither of my boys even tries to wear the girls' clothes, but Jude does enjoy the ruby slippers. :) If he wanted to wear them out, I'd just tell him that those are just for the house. I think you did the right thing. Btw, I love this post.

Aunt Mary said...

I couldn't have let him wear it -its just too dressy for a play date at the Y anyway don't you think?

Jen said...

When Hayden was 3 or 4, he went through a dress and I let him wear dresses out to play at public places.

I sat him down and we talked about how other people might not like that he is wearing a dress b/c usually dresses are for girls. I told him that some people might not be very nice about it.

I let him decide what he wanted to do.

He always choose the dress and if people came up to him and said he shouldn't wear it, he would say "I can wear whatever I want."

Anonymous said...

I would have done the same. My son, at 2, carried a baby doll with him everywhere. It didn't bother me in the least, but the COMMENTS - oy! I couldn't go anywhere without someone commenting on a boy carrying a doll. Eventually I made him leave it in the car when we went out.

Emily & Ed Tice said...

Mason gets into Hannah's hair barrets and ribbons. Lately he finds her "easy clip" bows and puts those in his hair b/c he can. Hannah uses Mason as her dress up manican - and I usually hear her say - "try this on, I want to see how it looks" and walk in on Mason in a wig or princess dress. I believe if Mason was the oldest, Hannah would be mimicking him as a soldier or dinosaur, or more boy oriented super hero.

So I'd let them wear what they want at home for play, but change clothes in public outings.

robbie said...

I have to agree - I'd keep it at home, but mostly because if it's a kids-only environment, the kids may push their ideas on them. He's 3. He'll grow out of it... or maybe become one of those basketball players that wears blue nail polish. :-)