Being Naked

My son spends more time taking his clothes off than he does wearing them.  It is usually a struggle to convince him to get dressed or changed into/out of his pajamas, but within minutes I'll turn around to find a heap of his clothes on the floor and him running through the house in his birthday suit.

Tonight I dressed all three children for bed, gave the girls their bottles, and left Joey watching his evening show while I went to put the babies down.  Before I left the room Joey was sitting peacefully on the couch winding down getting sleepy.  Or so I thought.

I walked back in the room approximately 2 minutes later to find him in the exact position I left him.  Still watching TV (Wonderpets), still zoned out to the rest of the world, still sucking the infamous binky and holding his sister's pink blankie.  Minus one small detail... clothes:

When this first started happening a couple of weeks ago I decided I wasn't going to make a big deal about it.  Because we all know when you make a big deal about something unpleasant that your child is doing, it usually makes the problem worse, not better.  However, I'm finding it hard to resist urging my child to cover himself.

One of the reasons that I find this particular habit so annoying is because it wastes my time.  He's difficult to get dressed in the first place, often requiring tar and feathering chasing and holding down.  And it irritates me that he shows absolutely no respect for the effort that it takes me to get him dressed by stripping his clothes off with reckless abandon.  Then, if we want to go somewhere, or I get tired of watching his little you-know-what bounce around as he scurries about like the energizer bunny I have to start all over with the tar and feather getting dressed routine.  We often compromise.  I'll let him leave his pants off if he agrees to wear underpants and a t-shirt.  Or sometimes just the underpants.  But even this agreement is temporary.  It's only a matter of time before I hear, "I need be a naked boy, mom," and see various articles of his clothing coming off way faster than they went on.

Luckily, he hasn't taken to streaking in public places.  Yet.  I'm sincerely hoping he outgrows this stage before anyone else has to witness my son's preference for a nude lifestyle.  I already feel restricted in the activities that we can enjoy outside of our apartment, and I'm well aware of the fact that if my child goes public with his aversion to clothing we will not be able to go anywhere ever.  Not to mention it will be very difficult to enroll him in things like preschool or extracurricular activities.  On that "any special considerations" part of the registration I don't think it will be acceptable to write, "My child likes to take his clothes off.  I ignore this behavior, hoping that it will go away soon.  Please do the same."  Yea, I don't think that'll go over big.