It's recently been pointed out to me that my philosophy on "dress up" in our home is not typical. We have a costume box, like many homes, that contains everything from basic capes and crowns, to tool belts and helmets, to very specific Star Wars and Disney movie characters. My sons LOVE dress-up, and they have since before they could completely dress themselves. They think about costumes year-round, and they wear them at least weekly, if not more frequently, almost anytime they want.
When other children come over to our house, dress-up is almost always on the agenda. Our costume box is full to the point of taking up most of the closet, and yet we welcome more. This is a legendary costume collection among the 4-to-7-year-old set we know. Neighbors and cousins love it, and my mother-in-law is a key contributor to it, often buying the boys 2 or 3 costumes around Halloween, when they are on sale. I rarely say "no" when asked, "Can we play costumes?"
I believe that dressing up allows a child to truly become someone else, even for a moment, and it is totally empowering...not to mention fun!
Quin is currently obsessed with Indiana Jones. For his 7th birthday, we got him a "real" Indiana Jones fedora (though made of study felt, it does look pretty good), a canvas satchel (aka "treat bag" for trick-or-treating) and a leather whip (thank you, CostumeExpress.com!). We went to Kohl's so he could pick out some tan cargo pants and a shirt. We found the pants. I also found an Indiana Jones LEGO t-shirt at the LEGO store, and that is now his favorite. However, what he really wants a shirt that buttons up, so he can leave it open to his stomach, like Harrison Ford does on the DVD box cover. (Yowza! Not sure that is a good look for a 1st grader, but we'll see...) He also is dying for a leather jacket. We are not going to settle for a "fake costume" with a shirt stitched to a vinyl jacket front, like they have at the Party Warehouse, but it may take me a lot of hunting through second hand stores to find a leather-ish jacket that will work. For now, he's wearing a brown fleece jacket that I got on sale at Lands End. The color was enough to make him smile for hours.
And this leads me to my point: when Quin dresses up in this assortment of adventure-looking clothing, he IS Indiana Jones. While wearing this get-up, he is intensely interested in ancient artifacts, he wants to protect people and to find long-lost treasure. He is learning to use a compass (thanks, Grammy, for the adventure kit!), and is excited to read more and longer words so he can navigate through jungles using complicated maps...leading to treasure, of course. He knows to use his whip only outside, away from other humans, and honestly, he's getting pretty good at it! He is motivated on a whole new level when he becomes Indiana Jones, and that is alright by me. It will be years before he figures out that having "a new girl in every movie" says something about his sexual lethario rep... Instead, he sees it as Indy having a lot of cool friends, just like Quin does in real life.
Another funny thing is the way the boys include one another in their costumed adventures. Currently, when Quin becomes Indy, his little brother becomes "Shorty," the Chinese sidekick Indy has in one of the film. Tate doesn't even care what he wears, as long as he is wearing the little Chinese hat we have, and he gets to follow along on the adventures all over the house, in the yard, and at the park. They are hilarious to watch. And I am so happy that they can "become" different people, and yet still find a way to include one another (e.g. Batmat & Robin, Luke Skywalker & Anakin or Darth Vader, Spider-man in both red/blue and black, king & knight, etc.). They are quite a pair. A documentary film crew would have fun in this house.
I'm glad they love it, and I will encourage it until they get "too old" for such simple pleasures, and we pass the costumes on to the next generation of superhero-adventurer-dragon slayers. Dress-up is a very Sweet thing.
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