DC and Jay McCarroll (Season One “Project Runway” winner)

I have touched on DC’s clothing issues a bit in earlier posts,  but I’ve never really written about the whole shebang. Last week I was reading a post by Mother O’ Jim (What not to wear: Rules for dress, according to Jim) about just this subject, I found it  funny just how different and the same some of our kid’s clothing issues can be.

I’ve touched on buttons in an earlier post – here:

Buttons: If there is a button there, it needs to be buttoned. Years ago I thought I was being sneaky by removing the top button on all of his shirts so he would not insist on buttoning everything right up to his neck. I discovered I was not as slick as I thought I was one day when DC brought me one of his shirts to have the button removed. He knows there should be a button there and knows I’m cutting it off, but for some reason this is alright with him. Leaving it on and not buttoning it, is not.

Tags and holes as well:

Tags: All tags must be removed from all clothing. If he should find the smallest rip, tear or string, he will proceed to shred that article of clothing. It may take him all day, but he will make sure it can never be worn again. Just recently I mistakenly bought him a pair of jeans that had ready-made tears in them. When I realized, I was sure this would be a disaster, but for some reason, it was fine with him. He wears them quite regularly…….. figure that one out. I can not!

“Nice soft pants”:

For quite a while in middle school and some of high school,  DC was obsessed with fleece pants from Old Navy – elastic waist of course. The problem being he wanted to wear them year-round. It took quite a while to get him into jeans or any non-elastic waist pants. We compromised by  trading in his “nice soft pants” – many of them anyway, for nice soft pajama pants. He is now probably the only ‘kid’ in the world that is absolutely thrilled to get pajamas for Christmas. Wearing them at night seems to take away the sting of having to wear “real pants” during the day. Did I say “night”? Well I really meant as soon as he gets home and knows or hopes that he does not have to go anywhere else. This could be at noon on some days.

When he did finally make that transition from nice soft elastic waist pants to jeans and regular pants he refused to unbutton or unzip them. He could somehow pull on and take off all of his pants fully zipped and buttoned. I don’t know how he managed this but he did.

Zippers, hats and gloves:

It is always a battle to get him to zip up his coat (I am not a coat “zipper or buttoner” myself). He does not like to wear hats and gloves either. He works in a greenhouse so these are a must.  He will wear his Dr. Who hat – it has had long tassels that hang on either side. DC was insistent on tying these tassels like a bonnet. I explained to him many times that they are not made to be tied. Finally one day last week, I got a note home from his program that he pulled both tassels off of his hat. Why didn’t I think of that? He is now perfectly happy to wear his hat – at work – without the tassels. He still does not want to wear gloves. I have to insist. I do suspect that they come off as soon as his transportation leaves the driveway.

Tee-Shirts:

DC loves tee-shirts – not all tee-shirts though. I am still in the dark about why he absolutely hates some and loves others. I do know that they can not have pockets. Lately he has an aversion to white tee-shirts. I cannot get an explanation for this either. Grey was just added to his list of colors he will not wear. When I asked him why, I was told emphatically “White”! Apparently grey is the new white – it’s all the same to him.

The funny thing about all of this is that DC loves to dress up. He loves wearing a white dress shirt (with buttons) and a tie. He loves wearing a suit. He seems very comfortable all dressed up.

Shorts:

When DC was young, he loved wearing shorts. Switching from shorts to long pants in the fall was quite the battle. Now-a-days he would rather not wear them at all. Again, he works in a greenhouse and in the summer it is hot. He goes to camp, it is hot. He doesn’t care. I have often thought that DC does not feel heat and cold. He sleeps with a heavy comforter in the summertime. He will not have an air conditioner or a fan in his room. Fortunately the AC in my room will cool his room a bit so he doesn’t over- heat. In the winter he pushes the sleeves up his shirts, jackets and winter coats no matter what the temperature.

The latest clothing quirk; he has begun rolling up his short sleeves – just like the guys that carried their cigarettes in their Tee-Shirt sleeve back in the day. In addition to that, he likes to roll up his pants, just enough to make them “high-waters”. It looks very stylish with the white sweat socks. <sarcasm>

A few weeks ago, DC had a Valentine’s Dance to attend. It was scheduled to begin at 5PM. I knew I would not make it home from work in time to get him into the shower, get him to change his clothes and still get him there on time, so I asked Doug if he would come over to help him get ready and drive him to the dance. Knowing DC and Doug very well, I was not going to leave it to them to choose his wardrobe for the dance.  I laid out clothes for DC in the morning before I left for work…….

Best-laid plans…………

DC came walking in the door after the dance wearing the clothes I had laid out but with his pants rolled up, white sweat socks and his black dress shoes.

“You may now leave the runway….”

(Here is another ‘Clothing Related’ post from Autism Mom that has been published since……   The Purge – give it a read)