Picture Days and Halloween Costumes

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!