The Short of It :: Our Struggle with Pants

The Short of It (or, "Put Some Pants On!")If you have an ultra-hyper sensory aware child, you understand the struggle clothing poses as a major dilemma in everyday life. Starched new clothes can bring our morning routine to a complete stop for an embarrassing amount of time, and just the scent of a different laundry detergent is like watching someone at the perfume counter trying to decipher which scent of the two thousand choices is most pleasant. Wool sweaters are an invitation for the Seinfeld Elaine Dance front and center and typically in a formal environment.

Our son has deemed any pants with a zipper, jeans included, as “special occasion clothes”, and as such, he will do almost anything to get out of wearing pants with a zipper. Basketball shorts are his preferred wardrobe staple, so with the winter weather upon us, January and February being the coldest temperatures of the year, I am desperate to make him wear long pants. The harsh Wichita winters with wicked winds are the perfect storm for runny noses, raspy coughs and sightings of kids in shorts running rampant.

I’m not judging; I know the struggle is real. But here are a couple of ways we implement natural consequences and encourage our son to choose to put his long pants and coat on:

1.  Daily chores include taking out the trash, retrieving the mail (half a block away), and standing outside when our dog needs to “do business”.

2. Heated seats in our cars are only for adults.

3. We park further away during errand running. This is a habit we try to do year round, but in the dead of winter, that hike to the grocery store’s front door feels like climbing Mt. Everest.

4. I only put what I want him to wear in his drawers or closet. Now that he is 12 years old, he has graduated to a summer and winter drawer—one side of the dresser is for shorts and tees, the other side is hoodies, pullovers and pants.

5. If he decides to wear shorts, the shorts must be accompanied by a hat, gloves and a coat.

6. We’ve embraced basketball pants, not sweats, but rather warm-up pants.

Although I don’t recall ever hearing about a victim of frost bite being a child who wore shorts in the dead of winter, I beg my son to wear long pants mostly in order not to be judged. Surely, I’m not the only one…

 

 

Rachel Banning
Originally from the Wichita area, Rachel’s greatest adventure began 20 years ago when she married her husband. Together, they have one living child with Asperger’s (Dylan, ‘03) and one heavenly daughter with cerebral palsy (Mia, 2000-2013). She is a homeschool mom and business owner. Rachel is an unapologetic advocate for children of all abilities, a bookworm, and she will find any excuse to use her Kitchen Aid and wear Junior League red.