Published on 12, July, 2020
My nearly 10 year old daughter will only wear certain clothing and prefers items to be well worn in and dislikes clothes washed. She finds it incredibly difficult to throw out clothing even if is severely stained and has holes in it. I am currently battling to throw out the only pair of socks she wears to school. They are now permanently brown on the soles, have holes in the toes and fall down as elastic has gone. She will go into meltdown when they get thrown out and even if thrown out on a weekend, will threaten and possibly not go to school on the Monday morning. She has new ones but complains they are too tight and don't fit. Discussions result in screaming from her and items being thrown around the house. Suggestions made by us on how to help such as stretching out new socks are shot down by her. Does anyone have any advice on how to deal with transition between old and new clothing? This is invariably going to be a long term issue for her. Is it just a case of bracing for the fallout? Or do we wait longer until she decides they can no longer be worn?
You all have my sympathy but not understanding. Our family had clothes problems with my late father.
I have many peculiar habits. But with clothes I enjoy trying on brand new clothes bought from a shop for the first time.
But with my father it was a constant battle, first with my grandmother than my mother. He changed his clothes weekly, to his best clothes for the weekend and church. But then on Sunday night went searching for his old soiled clothes. Clean clothes were laid out, but he kept demanding "where are MY clothes?" , it seems that after clothes were washed and dried he refused to accept them as his own.