Rainbow Sweater Dress

Katie and our dogs at the dog park

Katie has a new favorite dress. It's a rainbow hoodie sweater dress, handed down from Will's cousin's daughter. She slept in it Saturday night. When we woke up Sunday, she said she wanted to wear it to church. I gave it a sniff test, checked for an overabundance of dog hair, and said, "Sure."

When she said she wanted to wear it today for a presentation she's giving at school, Will proceeded to wash it, dry it, and...get this... IRON it.

I wasn't even aware that we owned an iron.

The other day, I let Katie wear a shirt to school that had a giant hole in it. When she got home from school, Will told her not to wear that shirt to school anymore. Katie looked at me like, but you said I could. I shrugged my shoulders and told her she could wear the shirt for PJs.

Parents don't have to have the exact same standards to raise a kid together. In fact, I think it's good for a kid to see that not all grownups think alike. I'm of the mind that kids should be messy and dirty and too focused on learning about the world around them to care about their appearance. Will thinks kids should learn to keep themselves clean and presentable.

And guess what? We're both right. We come at parenting from different perspectives, but that's OK. I think it will make Katie into a more well rounded individual, with a style all her own.