Quote Originally Posted by treeholm View Post
I'm so jealous that you have 18 month olds getting ready on their own, Reggio! All of my children are only children, and even the 4 year old insists that her mother carry her to the car! None of them, except my granddaughter (who is almost 4) can get dressed at all! Of course, the 4 year old doesn't like to go outside, so if I ask her to try to dress herself, she just says no. The two-year old will at least sit still while I dress her, and I was thankful for that. I think I am the only one in their lives who even lets them walk in the yard, but since there are 3 of them, I can't carry them everywhere! This has got to be a first-time Mom thing, right? Once they have a second child, they realize that the older one can actually walk by the time they are 4, right???
You're right Treeholm, 18 month olds can't be expected to dress themselves. At about 20 months of age I encourage the parents and children to start learning how to put their hats and boots on and and take them off. It takes months of practice for a child to learn to do things like this and the quicker they are independent the better for everyone but let's be reasonable. They are babies.