Kids, Colors, and Clothes… Let Kids Be Kids!

I was taking a few quiet minutes to absentmindedly scroll through social media one morning. I took a mental note of a few things I saw, and it inspired me to write this post. As a parent who likes keeping spaces minimal and calm- avoiding busy and bright colors and patterns- I am an avid lover of anything neutral. Neutral colors, neutral pieces of furniture, neutral clothes, neutral, open-ended toys… anything that creates a simple, sweet, and lovely little space, I love it! That’s the trend now, too… everything neutral! I think it’s great in terms of keeping kids’ environments from being too overwhelming. I know if I went into a room with crazy patterns, colors, and clutter galore, I would feel overwhelmed, so I can’t image how little kiddos feel!

However… I personally feel like it’s getting to be a little too neutral and underwhelming. That morning, a specific comment thread stuck out to me. I love the company Cuddle + Kind, and I was looking through their Facebook page reading some comments. One commenter asked for advice on how to decide between two dolls, as one doll was very simple and the other doll had more color and was very pink. Another commenter replied and said, “Which doll do you think your daughter will like most? Think about you when you were a child. Would you walk up to a display of dolls and choose something with no color, or choose something that was colorful, sparkly, fun, etc.?” It was one simple comment, not meant to be judgemental in any way, but it was a great reminder to me and probably to everyone reading the comments in that thread that hey, lets take a moment to put things into perspective and remember it’s about our kiddos, not us.

As parents, we know that it’s important to be mindful about our kiddos’ environments and toys, to not create a space or provide things that are overwhelming and overstimulating, but it’s also important to always remember that kids still need to be kids! Kids are curious, fun, joyful, lively… they don’t want everything in their lives to be so neutral and plain plain plain. As parents, we need to remember that it’s not about us, it’s not about having everything neutral, simple, and so aesthetically pleasing that it’s “social media worthy.” It’s about allowing our children to be themselves and to give them opportunities to have and wear things they like, even if it makes us cringe a little (Ha ha).

My daughter is now three, so the independent, do-it-herself mindset is in full swing. She loves to dress herself, and often times her outfits will consist of a tutu dress of some sort (we have many, per requests of my daughter), maybe some colorful pants, her rainbow rainboots, or her sparkly princess light-up shoes. As a mom and lover of everything neutral, it’s a big reminder to take a step back, throw away the mindset to dress her in simple colors and plain outfits, and to give her the freedom to have fun and be herself.

The other day at the store we were looking for new shoes for my daughter. I wanted to get her these cute, simple slip-on grey shoes (thinking to myself, how practical! They will match with everything!), while my daughter insisted we get these pastel rainbow glitter slip-ons instead.

Guess which ones we left with? And guess which shoes she wears all the time? Honestly, I love it. I wanted the grey shoes, but her glittery, crazy shoes make her so happy!

Sometimes we do need to set boundaries, of course. We can’t let the kiddos get everything they’d rather have, sometimes we do need to get the less-fun things that are more practical. If she wanted to get furry boots and winter was ending, I would most likely say no. Boundaries and practical limits… still needed! It’s important for us to be confident leaders as parents. However, when it comes to providing kids with independent opportunities to choose things that they like more- things that may be more colorful and fun- go ahead and let them! It’s way more fun for both me and my daughter to let her be herself whenever she can. I always tell people that I’m thankful for my daughter for always bringing color, craziness, fun, and joy into my life.

So, as a reminder to myself and to you as a reader, when it comes to kids, colors, and clothes… let kids be kids! Let them have that colorful and fun bedspread instead of a plain white one. Let them have the bright pink Cuddle + Kind doll that’s not as “aesthetically pleasing” and simple as some of the others. Let them get the sparkly rainbow shoes instead of the plain grey ones. Let them dress up like an awesome, brave super hero to go to the store instead of wearing regular clothes.

Try to ignore all of the constant, staged pictures on social media of nurseries, kids rooms, and clothes that are so incredibly plain and neutral. It’s all beautiful, yes, but having a good balance of all things minimal and neutral to keep spaces from being overwhelming while also including colors, fun, and choices in your kiddos’ lives is a great compromise.

Let your kiddos have a life full of independence, choices, color, craziness, joy, fun, and silliness. You’ll have way more fun right along with them! (:

Thanks for reading!

Lots of love,

Anna