I don't really have any regrets (mostly because regrets are pointless), but if I could put a message in a bottle and throw it through time so that it would smack me in the head in 2006, I would more than a few things to say.
For one, I'd tell myself that 7-year old Alexis was STILL going to be fighting to sleep in my bed every night, so was it really worth that nightly battle thing? The war was not meant to be won.
I'd also tell me to skip the baby food wars with Alexis because POINTLESS. The kid didn't like jar baby food. She preferred lima beans, diced sweet potatoes, and all sorts of other choking hazards. I would advise myself to put on a helmet and prepare to play defense because trying to get her to eat "safe" purees was an exercise in stupid.
And then there is the "appropriate clothing" battle.
The good news is that I figured out I wasn't winning pretty quickly. I only tried to wrestle the kid into a coat and proper shoes for about a month before I said FINE. THEN FREEZE. Which, I still say that. Nearly every day.
I say it nearly every day because nearly every day, Alexis says SO WHAT? to the weather forecast and wears whatever the heck she wants to wear. If she wants to wear cute fuzzy boots in August, you just go ahead and try to stop her. If she wants to wear flip-flops in the snow, same thing. YOU tell her. I'm not. I'd rather spend that energy rolling my eyes at her as she pretends she's not cold and flat-out denies that she has goose bumps.
"I'M NOT COLD, MOM."
The only way to get her to wear a coat in the winter is for her to decide that her outfit accessorizes well with a coat. She's probably putting it on over top of a sundress anyway, so whatever. WHATEVER. There is no point to arguing with someone who is legitimately rarely cold. The best part is that she knows better than to complain to me about being hot/cold because she's dressed wrong. I truly have no reason to care.
If I don't care, neither should every person we encounter.
It has been happening for as long as I can remember. Alexis ventures out dressed completely inappropriately. I bite my tongue because POINTLESS. Picking battles and such, you know? But, while we're out, some well-meaning stranger will inevitably wander up to us and say something super helpful like, "Oh, honey, you look so cold! You should tell your mom to get you a coat."
Thanks, awesome person, but the kid has more coats than Burlington Coat Factory.
This morning the temperature dropped down into the 40's, which to Alexis is a sign that she should wear a tank top, shorts, and flip-flops. So she did. I said nothing to her and let her venture on out to the school bus dressed like she was headed to the beach, even as the leaves softly floated to the ground all around her.
Whatever.
Some random neighbor (who I didn't recognize, which is weird in and of itself) was out walking her dog just as Alexis was headed down the sidewalk. That random neighbor stopped walking her dog, turned to our door, and shouted across the street, "Your mom didn't dress you right for the weather, sweetheart!"
Thanks, sweetheart.
I was standing right there.
I've noticed that when people have something critical to say, they try to direct it towards the kid in question rather than the adult. It's fabulous.
ANYWAY.
Alexis is aware that I will not take the blame if she doesn't dress appropriately for the weather. I know she knows it's her problem and now I REALLY know because she turned to that stranger and yelled back, "It's OK! I don't listen to my mom!"
Truer words ...
