Going Parental: Sensory Overload
I recently wrote a post about my three-year-old daughter and her new found love of torturing me. She’s a smart, sassy little girl with an attitude that, at times, stops me in my tracks. It’s hard to fault her for something she most likely inherited from me. Plus, she’s ridiculously funny — like she gets-the-joke kind of funny. But lately, the cute and funny part of her is taking a backseat to a whining, screaming child — and the cause of these outbursts? Getting dressed.
Picking out clothes was something she used to absolutely love. This is a child that would empty her drawers and like a matching game, would lay out shirts, pants and skirts that she thought looked good together. And she was really good at it. We’re talking America’s youngest Project Runway contestant in the making.
Now — she’s America’s youngest hot mess.
We have come to realize that my daughter has severe sensory issues with clothing. Getting her dressed in the morning has become an absolute disaster. I would rather lay face down on broken glass and have a sumo wrestler jump up and down on my back than get her dressed. It’s upsetting for everyone involved in the process. It’s frustrating, infuriating — but most of all, it’s incredibly sad. I want nothing more than to help her and find a way to fix this but I am at a complete loss.
We have figured out that American Apparel’s Karate Pants and a soft long-sleeve T-shirt are the way to go. We pick out her outfits the night before and make sure she is happy with them, but what felt good on her yesterday can be an absolute disaster the very next morning.
Is this just a normal part of development? Do all toddlers go through this? Is it a control thing? Is she punking me?
S.O.S.
Going Parental appears every Thursday. What’s left of my sanity appears far less often.
Latest posts by Jaclyn Roth (Posts)
- The Jessie Books & National Coming Out Day - October 11, 2011
- Parents, prepare to go parental: Doctor faked data linking autism to vaccines - January 6, 2011
- Going parental: iPad — Magic Slate in disguise? - September 29, 2010
- Going parental: Dad boards school bus and screams at bullies — terribly wrong or terribly right? - September 22, 2010
- Going Parental: First day of school! - September 8, 2010
Print This Post
When Jess comes to my closet to play “dress up” (which usually involves putting one of my slinky shirts that, on little Miss Hot Mess, is a dress), she knows immediately what she does not like. It’s obvious in the crinkled nose face followed by the “I don’t like this material it doesn’t work with my skin” look. Your daughter, my surrogate child, has sensory issues. I mean what child wouldn’t love a gold sequined tank that is everything sparkly? Yours. But at some point she will get through this stage and move on to the ” My friends have Gucci handbags and Prada sunglasses why can’t I?” stage where you will be forced to empty your wallet and destroy the stripping on your credit cards. All while she is menstruating and screaming “I hate you you’re so mean.” Then you will look back to the pictures of her in her American Apparel cheap cotton comfies and wish you could go back to that stage. For a “little hot mess” is always better than a prepubescent, whining mess.
I don’t have any advice, but I think it will only get worse before it gets better. I agree, she will soon be on the “I need a Gucci handbag because all the other 7-year-olds have one” stage. It probably won’t end until she has her own child and realizes that wearing a dirty t-shirt with spit-up on it is probably as good as it is going to get.
Great post.