5 Reasons Why You Should Let Your Kids Dress Themselves

You may have read the title of this post and thought to yourself “there is absolutely no way I’m letting my 4 year old child dress themselves, are you crazy!?”. But hear me out …

You would simultaneously be saving yourself some time during hectic mornings before school while also teaching your child important skills.

You may be thinking the only skill they will gain is potentially matching their shirt with their pants (on a rare day), but there’s so much more to be gained from this!

So, here’s 5 reasons to let your child choose their outfit of the day:

1.  Boost their confidence

Allowing your child to dress how they want will boost their confidence because it establishes a higher level of trust. It shows them that you believe in them to complete the task. Plus, everyone prefers to wear what they want, what they feel confident in, so why restrict your child from feeling this way?

Dressing yourself is empowering and by building confidence in this way, they will learn to be confident in different aspects of their life. Starting young will give them the ability to grow and learn early on that being confident in yourself is important.

2.  Establish responsibility

Giving your child the daily task of dressing themselves before school or whatever occasion it may be, establishes responsibility through obtaining a mandatory task to complete every day. And, by establishing this form of responsibility, the child in turn gains confidence that they are capable of doing something by themselves. As a parent, you could implement a reward system if your child remains responsible.

3.  Self-expression

Dressing up how you want is not only a fashion statement but a matter of expressing one’s true self; one’s identity. Everyone is different, and who’s to say a child should not be able to use clothing for self-expression as an adult normally would?

Show your child your support by doing fun activities together to help them express themselves through fashion, like why not design a shirt together? Kids T-shirt printing for personalisation needs can be both a bonding activity along with a unique way in which to express your identity. Design the shirt or whatever clothing article it may be, however you like and walk out with confidence!

4.  Increase in independence

Letting your kids dress themselves encourages them to be more independent. Of course, while they’re young, they’re going to be very dependent on their parents, and that is normal. However, it’s just as normal for you as a parent to teach them that it’s important to be independent because you can’t rely on someone else for your entire life.

Much like self-expression, fashion encourages independence as it’s a way to express one’s individuality. This is a crucial life lesson, although it may not seem like much, by starting off young they will grow to be responsible and independent adults (who know how to dress fashionably).

5.  Teach them the value of money

Much like establishing responsibility, fashion is associated with spending money. I don’t know about you, but when I was a kid I had no idea what the value difference was between 100 and 1000.

By allowing your child to dress themselves and buy what they please during shopping sprees, they learn from a young age the value of money. Why not give them an allowance and explain budgeting to them and spending money responsibly.

This way, you can ensure that your child understands what it means to spend money.

Personalise and Accessorize! 

Most kids love playing dress-up, so why not make it a reality for them? The most important thing of all is that they learn relevant life skills, but also, that they enjoy dressing themselves and expressing themselves.

Let’s go shopping!