A couple of months ago, C started complaining about her wardrobe...something she's never done before. She complained about pants being too loose (she's a lean kid), sweat shirts being too heavy and...tags being scratchy. The tag issue bugged me the most. It seemed absolutely ridiculous to me that clothing she had worn recently, was now a problem because there was a tag.
At first, I told her I wasn't cutting tags out. She would just have to get used to them. After all, lots of people get used to tags and she couldn't cut tags out of her clothing for the rest of her life. For some reason, she didn't understand my reasoning and getting her dressed in the morning often resulted in lots of conflict.
I asked a few friends about their experience with tags and was told that for some kids, it's a real thing...tags do irritate them. So I relaxed...a little, and said I would cut out the scratchy, stiff ones. Once she knew I was cutting tags out, she'd brought me any piece of clothing with a tag...regardless of whether it was scratchy or not. I still wasn't ready to cut tags out of all her clothing, so mornings still contained lots of conflict.
On one such morning a few weeks ago, I was really irritated about the tag issue (and the whining), and concerned about the amount of conflict that was occurring between C and I. As I went to get ready for work, I heard a little voice say to me..."Are you going to build a wall between you and your daughter over tags?" I paused...All of a sudden, the whole situation seem silly and I realized that I was the one that needed to change. It was wrong for me to jeopardize my relationship with C over tags.
So I apologized to C, and I have now become a parent that cuts tags out of their kids clothing. I still have a hard time believing tags bother her that much, but it's not a battle I need to win.
