How my children dress is extremely reflective of their personalities. They choose what they will wear and dress themselves, my girls. They both started this by two. They are quite insistent about it, actually. I think children need some power and control in their world, and why not over the things they wear? Other people---moms mainly---have debated this point fiercely with me. The main counterpoint is that the moms feel it is no favor to the child to let her go about looking like a ragamuffin or freak. I hear that point, I do. But. I'm not sold on this. In the past, I have definitely thought my point---if you can't dress up and dress how you like at 2, 3, 4 then when can you? let's indulge the littlest kids---weighed more than the rest. So what if Patience sometimes felt like being a cat, and thus wore a cat tail with her clothes, and only spoke in meows? But now, at school age, the small doubts that had been creeping in---the worry that maybe those moms, who seem to be th...