Backwards is Best

Sam, at age 4, is very insistent on exercising his independence and getting himself dressed. And he does... every single day. He has a complete and total lack of concern for colors, textures, or sizes. If he finds it, he puts it on. T-shirts from three years ago, pants that actually belong to his much larger older brother, he really doesn't care. When he does manage to put on clothes that actually fit him, they are almost always backwards. Shirts and pants... on backwards. I use to think it was just an occasional accident. Even I've put my shirt on backwards before. But when it happens every day, every time the child gets dressed... too much for mere happenstance, right? It's probably worth mentioning that he also wears his shoes on the wrong feet. On purpose. With his often unruly hair, the result is normally a child that looks rather orphan like. Combined with a sister that HATES with a purple passion to have her hair brushed and prefers to wear dresses on top of blue jeans, one might wonder if I actually have any part in my child's wardrobe assembly.

In my defense, there is the occasional time when I make Sam reverse his clothes, force Lucy to sit through a very tearful detangling, and the most difficult challenge of all, require Jordan to wear a shirt that, horror of all horrors, has a collar. For the most part though, I don't care too much. I mean really... what does it hurt to wear a shirt backwards? It reminds me of an episode of Medium, a TV show I enjoy watching on NBC... without getting in to the details and premise of the show, there are three daughters in the family that it focuses on. The middle daughter clearly marches to the beat of her own drum. When she wanted to wear her bicycle helmet for her school picture... her parents let her. I loved that, because really, what does it hurt? I don't ever want to infringe on the creativity and uniqueness of my children, in so much as it doesn't compromise our family standards or inflict personal damage in anyway. But backwards clothes or bicycle helmets? No sweat.