When my girls were little, they loved to wear dresses. They would wear them every day if I let them, but I didn’t let them because I am not a dress-wearing type of woman.
Dresses are fussy. They require special shoes and special underwear and tights without holes in them. I can pull it off on special occasions, but on a regular basis, something was always missing. It was easier to veto the dresses than deal with the hassle of finding three pairs of tights that 1) fit and 2) didn’t have holes.
Still, on warm summer days when fancy shoes could be abandoned and tights were not necessary, my trio of toddler girls would dress up whenever they wanted in their various dresses. I have one picture of my middle daughter standing in our bathtub. She is wearing a gorgeous sundress, and she has the cutest expression ever, and she is covered head to toe in mud. She was around 2 at the time.
One of my biggest reasons for vetoing the dresses, however, was the winter weather. It can be cold outside, and I just didn’t want my girls leaving the house wearing just tights on their little legs. I remember the begging that would happen. One of their girl cousins happened to wear long dresses to school almost every day even throughout the winter. They felt sure they could do it too. It wasn’t happening.
Fast forward a few years, and it would take a minor miracle to get any of the girls to wear a dress. Once in a while, when in dire need, they might don a skirt, but even then there were certain requirements that had to be met. It was a huge production, and they were finally old enough that it wasn’t my production.
After a few years of fully swearing off dresses, my lovely girls started to rewrite family history. Suddenly, I was the one that wanted THEM to wear the dresses. They never liked wearing dresses. I don’t think so, Charlie. Despite their protestations in recent years, there was a time when they wanted to wear dresses.
And it seems, they are now starting to reach the age where dresses can once more be a possibility. It no longer involves tights, and I highly recommend avoiding nylons as well, but it does involve four-inch heels and satin.
It turns out that they clean up pretty good. I’m just surprised they didn’t arrive home covered head to toe in mud. I wouldn’t have put it past them.
