How many T-shirts does it take to finish a meal?

Colter has a hard time sitting still. He's also physically and emotionally sensitive (by which I mean that he responds intensely to stimuli, not that he is especially in tune with others' responses). So dinnertime spills -- actually the mere hint of a spill -- are cause to get up from the table and change from suddenly-uncomfortable clothes into something else. And once he's gone to his bedroom to do that it's anyone's guess whether he'll get totally distracted by toys and other fun or remember we're in the middle of a meal and rejoin us. Once we hear him singing we know he's forgotten we were eating, and so we call him to come back. Usually he does this without a shirt, having remembered to take his off but not to put on a new one.

How many changes of clothes does it take your child(ren) to get through a meal?

Comments

[Christina]

My daughter, now 13, still has "the spills". Her dinnertime Oops's are far less frequent than when she was little, however. Between the ages of 2 and, oh, say, 8 or 9, she spilled regularly - sometimes because she put her glass down on the edge of the plate because she wasn't paying attention, sometimes because she was reaching for something and the glass just happened to get in the way. She would use her clothes as a napkin or, God help me, a tissue. Now 13, she is much better with the spills, but every so often....

[Maryanne]

My youngest daughter just turned 10. She spilled something at dinner everynight for the first 8 years of her life. We finally figured out if we gave her permission to spill her drink (which we premeasured to be about 2 tsps.) before we started eating, she didn't spill again the entire time we were eating. We'd sit down, pray, spill and eat. It worked perfectly. To answer your question, she changed at least once during that time and her brother Chase, who sat across from her changed as well.

[elise]

My daughter sarah also has those same sensitivities but without the distractability. She just wouldn't get messy to begin with. Dressing is never any fun because the clothes have to "feel" right. Offending tags need to be cut out. Things need to match just so. The waist has to fit just right, not too loose, not too tight, even the hint that it might slip down a bit is cause for distress. I guess in the olden days I'd just spank her and move on, but no, I have to worry about her psychological health!! LOL

[Chrixean]

My son Nicky often sits through the entire meal EVEN when he is soaked from the water spills! Simply for the same reason you mentioned -- he always ends up NOT changing when he does run to the room, and instead I find him on the floor with his dinosaurs still very much soaked. So I figured, if he can stay uncomfortable while playing with his toys, then he can sit through his meal in the same wet clothes :-P

Anyway, nice blog!

[Lydia]

Hmmm... Sophia does get fairly upset when she spills while eating, usually only stuff like yogurt or popsicle. She might shriek about it for a second, but then usually just takes off the offending item of clothing (since she adores being naked, anyway) adn finishes her food unclothed. No changes of clothing. But she does like to change outfits throughout the day (she has waaay too many clothes, lol) for one reason or another.

[Julie]

Tacy used to be a lot more sensitive to spills/messes/damp clothing, but she has relaxed a bit over the past year or so. The rule here is that she must be dressed before coming downstairs to watch TV before school, but this means that she is also fully dressed when she eats her breakfast, and she inevitably goes to school with traces of yogurt or oatmeal on her shirt.

Now - changing clothes for the sake of fashion - that happens far too often. The child has gotten up in the middle of the night to change her clothes. We're working on that.

[Cathy]

OK, don't hate me but... NONE. Liam's clothes remain spill free most days. Is that freakishly abnormal? :)

[Critter's Mom]

For me it's not the clothing or dinner but it's the bathroom counter while doing anything in the bathroom. For some reason, known only to Critter, he has this compulsion to clean the bathroom whenever he's in there.

I know, you are asking yourself why this is a problem. It's not really except he tends to use WAY too much cleaner. There is not one germ currently on my bathroom counter and three days later I still smell the bleach albeit faintly.