Hi, this is Janet Lansbury. Welcome to Unruffold. Today I'm going to be responding to a

parent's question about her daughter who is three years old and having trouble with

transitions, especially getting dressed and getting out the door in the morning. And this

mother's tried several approaches and nothing seems to be working.

Here's the email I received. Hi Janet. I have a strong-willed, sensitive and shy,

three-year-old daughter who's having trouble with transitions, the biggest being in the morning.

Every morning we have breakfast together before she gets dressed for preschool.

After finishing breakfast, she runs to the couch and plays under the blankets,

even though we have talked about the next step of the morning, getting dressed.

I've tried different approaches such as removing the blankets from the couch, waiting for her to

get dressed herself, getting dressed before breakfast, and even offering to read a book if she

helps get dressed. But nothing results in her willingness to want to get dressed.

She tells me she wants to stay in PJs to which I reply that I wish I could stay in PJs too,

but that is time to get dressed for school. I know she needs my help to get dressed in this situation,

but every morning ends up being a struggle to get her dressed with her crying and screaming

and trying to take off the clothes that I'm putting on. I feel like we are stuck in this weekday

morning drama, and I don't know what to do differently. Please help. Okay, so first of all,

it's very typical for toddlers and all young children to have difficulty with transitions.

And I think this is probably something we can all relate to. As this mother even said to her

daughter, she wishes she could stay in PJs too. Well, I wish I could stay in PJs and I often do

because my work actually is a lot of it is writing and being at home and I actually can stay in PJs

most of the day. But getting out somewhere, getting ourselves together, even if it's somewhere that

...