Coordinating Clothing

OK, so I brought the children to the dentist last week. . . all four of them. BUT, my husband was with me, so it went rather smoothly. I stayed in the waiting room with Jessica, while hubby went with each boy as they took their turn getting their teeth cleaned.

As I sat in the waiting room, the receptionist kept chatting with me (amazingly, there were no other patients around). I heard the usual, "Wow, you have your hands full" and "Awww, you finally got your girl, huh?" 

When it was time to check out, she looked at the whole gang and was surprised that all the kiddos were wearing some form of orange. Like others before her, she asked, "Do you match them all the time?" The answer is NO, but I do tend to coordinate them more often than not. Part of it is a bit "OCD," but the other reason is purely logical.

Here are the kiddos in orange

Picture this: you are at the park with 3 boys - ages 4, 3, and 2. All are "mobile" and climbing and jumping everywhere. The park is crowded and you hear a blood-curdling scream. You rush over to find your youngest has tripped on his own two feet and whacked his head into the wooden frame. Blood is pouring out - as happens with any good head wound - and you realize you must head to the ER. But where are your other two children? Ahhh, there they are, with the bright orange shirts. You yell to the oldest the get the middle child and head to the car. Everyone is buckled in a matter of minutes, and off you drive. 

Has this particular circumstance happened to me? NO. But, I have often "lost track" of one while watching the other and I'd like to be prepared for the worst. THIS is why my children wear bright colored, coordinating shirts when we go to the park, mall, children's museum, fireworks display, etc.

Two words: semblance and sanity. The children looking similar gives me some sort of "peace."

Anyway, back to the dentist's office.

The receptionist also asked (in relation to the coordinating clothes), "What. . . did you read some sort of parenting book?" LOLOLOLOL! No, I did not. I was not trying to copy the Duggars as I did not even know who they were when I started this. I was just learning from experience, as we all do when we are parenting. 

Another reason for coordinating my children when they are in public, is so they don't look like this:

This is my middle son and a sample of his clothing choices. As you can tell from his facial expression, he is pretty goofy sometimes :) My oldest and youngest boys like things to match, but my middle son just doesn't care.

When we are at home, I don't really care what they wear, as long as they're dressed - lol! But when we are out in public, they are representing our family, so they need to look presentable!

We may not be able (or willing) to buy all name brands or the latest fashions, but I do want my children to look nice when we're out and about. So, if we have an appointment in the morning or even just plan on doing some errands, I lay out their "nice" clothes. I don't let them wear jeans with holes in the knees or shoes that are scuffed and torn. I want them to learn to be proud of how they look without becoming cocky about how they look.

As an adult, doesn't it bother you when other adults are shopping in their pj's and slippers or waltzing around without any undergarments?!? It sure bothers me! I'm not saying that I always wear make-up or that my hair is always done, but I surely don't want people to think I just crawled out of bed!

And speaking of "crawling out of bed". . . if you look closely, you can see Kyle's hair sticking up quite dramatically. It is past the point of needing a haircut, so I would definitely have combed it. . . if we had gone out today!