However, in the past few years, I have had good intentions, but for one reason or another, I would always end up in pants (usually jeans).  My reasons were varied, but honestly they were mostly just excuses:

• I don't have any dresses (not true).
• Everyone will look at me funny (since I never wear dresses).
• My legs will be cold which in turn will make the rest of me cold (I'm cold half the time anyway.)
• I'm white as a ghost.  I'll blind everyone!  (I have the complexion of an Irish redhead, except without the red hair.)
• Various versions of the idea that wearing a dress equals dressing up.  Why should I get dress up for _____ (work, my day off, whatever)?  I can't do that in a dress (washing dishes, cleaning the catbox, etc.)  Dresses mean wearing uncomfortable dress shoes. And more...
• Etc..  I'm sure I could think up a lot more if I tried, but you probably get the point.

Then, I've had recent situations with my two year old who absolutely loves to "match" mommy.  While I wasn't a big fan of dresses for myself, I loved that she looked so cute in them and loved wearing them.  I started to worry that if I kept up with my jeans-only attitude that she will soon tire of wearing dresses and will want to wear pants, just like mommy.

But even more important than those two specific situations, they prompted me to start thinking of the example I'm setting for my kids.  My example is important not just for my daughter, but also for my son.  He's only four now, but as he grows up, he will have expectations, etc.. about his future wife and their marriage, and a lot of those expectations will be based on our example, good or bad.  I want both my kids to know that men and women, husbands and wives, mommies and daddies are different.  God has given us different roles, purposes, talents, and skills.  And until these two incidents with my kids, I hadn't really thought of dresses as part of that example.  But it's a huge part.  How can they see that women are feminine and men are masculine?  Of course there are other ways, but a really easy, obvious way is to dress like a lady, not just act like one.  I think it also makes it easier for men to be masculine when the women aren't running around dressed like men (okay, even with my jeans, I'm still wearing girl clothes, cute tops and dress shoes, but that's not the point).  If you're wearing a dress, men treat you differently: open doors, lift something heavy, take the garbage out, etc..  I want my kids to recognize and honor the difference between masculine and feminine, not run from it, or worse hate it.  Which brings me to another point. In writing this, I've come to realize how much I've been influenced by feminism in our society.  I had thought that it hadn't really affected me.  After all, I grew up with a stay-home mom.  I currently work, but my life-long career goal has always been to be a stay-home mom.  I know men and women are different because God created us different. But somehow I still managed to grow-up with an extreme dislike and disdain for anything "girlie".  Along with a negative attitude about dresses, I also hated pink for the sole reason that it's the official girl color (in the last few years, I've discovered that I love pink.  It's a beautiful, beautiful color!).  Anything girl/boy, I always gravitated toward boy interests: cars, tools, whatever.  Wow, just remembering my attitude all those years....  I hadn't realized how this feminist world we live in had impacted me so much when all this time I thought that I grew up immune to them.  Sorry for the brief pause as I have a moment of self-enlightenment.  Back on track now.

So, my son, then daughter had me thinking, but still no dresses for me.  And then more nudges.  I was looking up information on Home Management Binders and stumbled across a webpage about wearing dresses.  Then a few days later, on a message board that I belong to, someone brought up the exact same things that had been on my mind regarding dresses.  So, I thought I better listen up and take the hint!  It sure feels like Someone's trying to tell me something!

Which brings me to the present, I'm still wearing jeans most of the time.  I've been wearing a dress or skirt to church on Sunday and usually one during the week to work, and my intention is to work up to more often.  I work in my company's headquarters, an office building with about 700 people, so while we are allowed to dress casually and wear jeans, you wouldn't think wearing a skirt would be that big of a deal (it's an office, for goodness sake!), but I still felt really self-conscious about wearing a dress to work since I haven't worn one in the presence of my co-workers for at least five years (which is equivalent to never, since most of them haven't been there that long and the rest aren't going to remember me wearing dresses years ago....)  The first time I wore a dress to work (last month), I had no less than 7 comments, all nice of course, but still, I felt like everyone was staring at me and I stood out like a sore thumb (I promise it was a modest dress!!).  Even now that it's been a month or two and I've worn a dress once a week, I'm still getting comments when I show up in a dress.  It makes me feel a little uncomfortable, and I'm still trying to get used to that.  Hopefully they'll get used to seeing me in a dress and it will just be a matter of course.  But in the meantime, me and my dresses are still causing a stir, while I wish that it wasn't such a big deal.

That brings me to another point though.  Since I've had dresses on my mind, I've become a lot more aware of dresses in general and I'm sad to say that I hardly ever see anyone wearing a dress or skirt (church being the exception).  In general public, they are very rare (and I'm not including those itsy-bitsy things that teenagers wear...  I'm talking real, lady-like dresses and skirts).  There are a lot of people where I work, and I can go days without seeing a dress.  I spent several hours in a crowded public place recently, and I only noticed two skirts.  Only two!!  It makes me sad.  I've really come around and I love dresses now.  I love the swish, I love the look, I love how they make me feel like a "real" girl.  They make me feel feminine and beautiful.  Just wearing one makes me smile.  I hadn't realized that they had become so rare (it's like they're almost an endangered species! )

I am, however, still struggling with the idea that wearing a dress does not necessarily mean that you're all dressed up.  I know that there are women who only wear dresses and they go about their daily chores without a problem, but I'm still having a hard time with that.  I know I can wash the dishes or do the laundry while wearing a dress, but other things like gardening, etc...it still feels like a dress is too much.  Hopefully, I'll get myself retrained and it won't be a big deal.  I doubt I'd ever get to the point where I'm wearing dresses only, but for now I just feel like (and want to) wear them more often.  But for now, I'm content with little steps.  After all, I've worn more dresses in the past two months than I've worn in the past two years.  I think I'm off to a good start... 

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