Both Picture Days and Halloween have one thing in
common – dressing up! From experience, I found that if I allowed my kids to
pick their clothes and costumes, they are happy kids.
Here is an experience
that spanned a few years, from many years ago…
When ASid was 4,
I convinced him to be a firefighter for Halloween. It didn’t need much
convincing really! He loved the hat and the (plastic) axe. I loved the fact
that it goes over his warm clothes and still is visible. It is
counterproductive when you have a great costume and you have to cover it up
with a warm jacket. In Canada or anywhere where it is cold, this is a point of
consideration for some parents like myself or just for someone like me!
Anyways, moving on with the story…ASid was a firefighter at 5 and at 6 as well.
The costume was great and it still fit him perfectly. At 7, when Asid had to
wear it for a fourth time, he decided to do something about it. He made a big
hole in it. In this quiet protest was a loud message for his Momley!
I did learn from that lesson. Democracy prevailed
since that day. It was actually very freeing and I applied it to other days
like Picture Days. Let the boys wear what they want; keep the hair they have!
What matters is that I have happy boys at the end of the day.
Recently, for Picture Day, I asked Hans if he is OK
with the t-shirt he picked. Would he rather not be dressed fancy? His response
without hesitation was, “I don’t want to be fancy. I want to be swaggy!”
When I went to pick him up from school that day, I saw kids looking fabulous in
their buttoned up shirts and pretty dresses. Hans looked like he does every day.
Part of me wondered if I should have been more convincing?! Well, I got the
pictures yesterday and there was one beaming little swaggy boy in each of the prints. Priceless!
Hans is the quintessential kid the marketing world
targets. He wore a Lightning McQueen t-shirt for Picture Day in JK; Ninja
Turtles in SK; LEGO Ninjago in Grade 1 and Avengers in Grade 2. In all the
pictures, he has his t-shirts prominently displayed and his pictures could be
used to promote any one of those movies, products or shows. However, Hans does
not know the commercial nature of these pictures. He is happy wearing his
favourite t-shirts and that’s all that matters.
For Halloween this year, Hans will be dressed up as
Kid Flash. His costume may be covered up in a warm jacket and his little face
by a mask. No one will know it is him or even who he is dressed up as; however,
Hans will have a beaming little smile the whole time! No one will see that
either, but it doesn’t matter!
