I assumed when I became a mom, it was just part of the package deal for my kiddos to not only comply with every carefully pieced together outfit, but to also be overjoyed to wear the vintage shoes + frilly dresses + matching bonnet.  Like my perfect little “Stepford Wives” version of a child.
“mommy, please may I wear the bohemian romper with these very trendy Mary Jane’s, can I get the giant, uncomfortable bow headband as well?”
Haha…yeah the real world doesn’t work that way.

The days of your baby being happy in whatever come to an end when they start becoming their own little person.  If she had it her way, Kylie’s entire wardrobe would consist of Minnie, Trolls and Elmo.  Which I’m game with giving free advertising to those companies here and there, but not every single piece of clothing! I WANT my child to wear what I want! Haha.  We all want our kiddos to be cute.  Dressing our babies up is one of the joys of motherhood.  I mean c’mon, don’t take that away!   But then I remind myself that how much it meant when my mom started letting me wear things I was comfortable and happy in.  I do want my kids to be happy and motivated to get themselves dressed (less work for me).  Otherwise I’d have a naked toddler running around Houston (no joke).  So I’ve come up with ways to compromise with her.
Now every child is different (duh) but maybe these things that have worked for me will if not work for you, at least spark some ideas.

1-) DON’T BRING THEM: I’ve found with Kylie that if she’s in the store with me trying to pick out clothes she just says no to everything.  (unless it has some sort of movie character).  So I get them when I’m alone.  When I bring them home I wrap them up like a present (I keep a bunch of gift bags on hand) and give it to her and say “Kylie I have a present for you!”  That gets her so excited and she want to put the clothes on right away.

2-) FIND SOME MIDDLE GROUND:  Kylie likes flowers, bows, butterflies, hearts, stars and anything colorful.  Well that can give me a lot more to work with, lots of girl clothes have those things in the minor details of the fabric.  And if you have a boy maybe he likes animals, a certain color or print.  Get them excited about it.

3-) MATCHING YOU:  Kids love to be like you.  Kylie needed new tennies for like 3 months and it took us that long to find some because she hated and wouldn’t wear any of the shoes I would allow her to wear.  The one day we saw the adidas sneakers.  They are just like mine but her size (well and with velcro haha) She instantly loved them, because “these are like mama’s!”

4-) FOOD:  Kids get excited about food.  Kylie would wear this popsicle dress into adulthood if she could.  If any sort of food print is just against your fashion morals 😉 then you could take this route I’ve taken before “Kylie this dress is pink like a cupcake!”

My dress | My sneakers | Kylie’s sneakers | Harley’s skinny jeans