{"id":19040,"date":"2021-02-01T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-02-01T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sasee.wpenginepowered.com\/?post_type=essay&p=19040"},"modified":"2024-03-26T15:08:35","modified_gmt":"2024-03-26T19:08:35","slug":"i-look-awesome","status":"publish","type":"essay","link":"https:\/\/sasee.com\/ro\/essay\/i-look-awesome\/","title":{"rendered":"I Look Awesome!"},"content":{"rendered":"

At five years old, there is very little that Delaney can control about the world around her. But if a few outfits can make her feel ready to take on this crazy world, she needs to wear them.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Dressing Delaney was easy when she attended a school that required a uniform. Each day, she wore a plaid jumper over a white polo with matching navy tights and black Mary Jane shoes. There was no need to lay out clothes in the evenings, and no cause for last-minute changes in the morning. Life was easy. There may have been no room for creativity, but there was also no room for arguments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This year, Delaney is in public school, and she has a bit more freedom in her wardrobe. She has always had a strong sense of self, and more recently, that has transferred into her fashion choices. She knows what she likes, and what \u201clooks bad.\u201d And she is very much aware of the effects a fantastic outfit can have on her self-esteem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI look awesome in this!\u201d she exclaimed the other day while trying on a black leotard at Target. She has worn the leotard around the house on the weekends, but thankfully, she hasn\u2019t mentioned wearing it to school. She has, however, asked to wear the shirt portion of a Wonder Woman costume, and she became animalistic when I pointed out that it was tight and showed her belly. We don\u2019t always agree on what fits. Another issue we don\u2019t see eye to eye on is color coordination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat doesn\u2019t match,\u201d I told her, as she slid her legs into striped leggings and pushed her arms through a floral print top.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYes. It does,\u201d she argued. \u201cThey both gots pinks in them!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To minimize the morning clothing chaos, we pick out Delaney\u2019s outfits for the week on Sunday afternoons. She tries each one on. She looks at herself in the mirror, then she does her splits. If the outfit passes both the fashion and flexibility tests, we hang it up in the closet so it\u2019s ready to go. We also pick out a few alternates because \u2026 she is Delaney.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This week\u2019s lineup includes leggings, a rainbow skirt, and two Halloween costumes. Before I agreed to costumes, I checked the school\u2019s handbook and read the dress code line by line. The costumes don\u2019t include a mask. They aren\u2019t revealing and they are longer than her knees. They really look more like dresses than actual costumes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is, however, a clause that prohibits clothing that is \u201cdisruptive to instruction.\u201d But isn\u2019t that the very essence of being a kindergartener? Five-year-olds, by nature, are disruptive to instruction. What difference does an outfit make? I\u2019m letting her wear the costumes this week. If we\u2019re told they aren\u2019t appropriate, she won\u2019t wear them to school again. I\u2019m not encouraging her to break rules, but I do want to encourage her to express herself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At five years old, there is very little that Delaney can control about the world around her. But if a few outfits can make her feel ready to take on this crazy world, she needs to wear them. I want her to feel as awesome as she did in that black leotard – every day of her life.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At five years old, there is very little that Delaney can control about the world around her. But if a few outfits can make her feel ready to take on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_tec_requires_first_save":true,"_gspb_post_css":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_tribe_blocks_recurrence_rules":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_description":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_exclusions":"","footnotes":""},"essay_type":[46],"essay-category":[],"class_list":["post-19040","essay","type-essay","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","essay_type-features"],"blocksy_meta":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sasee.com\/ro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/essay\/19040","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sasee.com\/ro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/essay"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sasee.com\/ro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/essay"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sasee.com\/ro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sasee.com\/ro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19040"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sasee.com\/ro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/essay\/19040\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sasee.com\/ro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"essay_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sasee.com\/ro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/essay_type?post=19040"},{"taxonomy":"essay-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sasee.com\/ro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/essay-category?post=19040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}