Picking Your Battles

I was going to title this post "Compromise", but then I realized there is very little compromising going on.  With this third child I have thrown so many rules out the window.

This morning Sarah got herself dressed, which up until a couple of weeks ago was a  miracle, and when she picked out her navy tutu Amanda instantly decided that she was going to wear her tutu as well.  The navy tutu is our way of pushing the uniform envelope at the girls' school.  They are required to wear navy or khaki bottoms at school.  Of course they would rather wear something more girly, like tutus.  When I found navy tutus last year I bought a couple different sizes because I knew they would be a hit.  I wasn't wrong.

If you look closely, she has another shirt under her uniform shirt.  You guessed it, an Elmo shirt.  That is the only way I can get her dressed for school without her crying.  Put an Elmo shirt on first.  She doesn't really care that she has two shirts on and as long as the uniform shirt is on top neither does the school.  I never allowed the other two to do something like this.  On school days they wore their uniform, end of story.  However, I don't have time to fight with her about her clothes and get the other two ready and to school on time, so this is one fight I'm not going to fight.  It doesn't hurt anybody and as long as she is happy with twice as much clothes on, so be it.

Same goes for the shoes.  It has been a long-standing rule at our household that you do not wear Crocs to school.  This is because when the kids go out on the playground they get wood chips or rocks in their shoes and it's a pain for the teachers to get them out.  Ever the rule followers, we want the teachers to like us and therefore don't want to annoy them with constantly having to remove things from our childrens' shoes.  Therefore, no Crocs at school.  Again, if she wants to get crap in her shoes, so be it.  She also won't wear socks and has big blister marks on her heels because of it, but if she doesn't care I guess I shouldn't.

Someone on Facebook recently asked how you know you're done having kids.  No question, I'm done!