Battle Royale

That is what I feel like Sophie and I had this morning. She cannot fathom that she is allowed to wear sandals to school, in her mind she MUST WEAR SNEAKERS. Yes, that was the rule at preschool, but in Kindergarten, you do not have to wear sneakers except on PE days. You might consider wearing sandals, they do look cute with a skort. Today was picture day, and I gave her 2 choices of what she could wear. Nope, none of them looked good with sneakers. After her whining about it, and me trying to compromise with other outfits, which for various reasons she wouldn't wear, I gave up. By this time is was 6:15, and we still had to eat breakfast, get dressed and leave for the bus in the next 30 minutes. So, I channeled some of what my mother would have told me:

"This is what you are wearing, stop the whining and let's go eat breakfast."

"But Mommy, I don't like it!"

"I didn't say you had to like it, I just said you had to wear it."

Wow, she did not like that at all. Slammed her bedroom door and shot down the stairs, muttering, "my mother is such a pain, she never lets me do what I want!"

She sort of turned a corner at breakfast, and we joked some and things got better. But then, we went upstairs to get dressed. Again, the whole sneaker debate. I refused to argue, just repeated that you can wear sandals, and we can pack your sneakers for the playground. Then, I pulled out a red bow for her hair. That was the final straw.

"I am not wearing a bow, no way, I hate that bow!"

Mind you, it is a small bow, attached to a barrette that she would be wearing anyway.

"You can take the bow off and put it in your backpack after you have your picture taken, but for the picture, I want the bow on."

We had a pretty silent walk to the bus stop, and when we arrived the first thing Lily's mother Karin said to her was, "Sophie I love your outfit and your bow, you are going to look great for your picture."

Very begrudgingly she said, "Thank you. I didn't want to wear the bow, but my mother made me" All the while frowning at me.

Then her friend Bella showed up, in a dress, a dress God forbid, how can you play in that?? (Bella and Lily wear dresses every day, except when they have PE, Sophie is amazed by this.) Not only a bow in her hair, but a bow that her mother had made to match her dress. See Sophie, you could have it worse, you really could.