Mr. Independent

Help! My 7 year old is exhibiting an independent streak that must be stopped!

Okay, so maybe I’m being a little melodramatic. But I ask you: What exactly is the proper attire for a kid to wear to bed anyway?

I don’t believe that this should be a difficult question for most parents to answer. But, based on the difficulties I’ve been having this past week, it seems to be a battle of epic proportion in my house.

I’m just curious about this question because my oldest son seems to be having trouble conforming to the standard night-time attire for most children: a pajama top, underwear, and pajama bottoms. You see, when he gets ready for bed lately, instead of putting on the prescribed kids’ uniform that has worked perfectly for generations, he wants to deviate and choose something on his own. Now, you may be asking yourself at this point, “What’s the big deal, Brian?”

The big deal is that instead of wearing his pj’s to sleep in, he wants to wear his new tennis shoes to bed. That’s it – just his tennis shoes. No amount of logic and begging has been able to dislodge this curious idea from his head. At bedtime, he insists on dancing around the living room, shouting out that his tennis shoes make him feel “Good.”

In time, I’m sure that I’ll be able to get him to see that there’s a perfectly logical reason that he can’t sleep with just his tennis shoes on. Your sheets will get filthy, you’ll get cold without pajamas on, etc. Until that time though, it’s a problem that I’m just going to blame on his Mother. After all, she’s the one who bought him the new school shoes, so it must be her fault. Right?

(Original Posting Date - September 14, 2009)