Dylan Caputo Has a Style All Her Own and We Love It!

As I was scrolling through Facebook today, I came across the above picture. The name of this little cutie is Dylan and she is 6 years old. In the post, Dylan's mom Erin, commented on her daughter's chosen outfit for the day. "This is quite an outfit choice, but she woke up on her own, on time when her alarm went off and got herself dressed, so I got nothing to say. It looks great kid," she wrote to her Facebook friends.

I don't know Dylan or her mom, Erin, but I can tell you that this photo made me smile. This little girl looks so proud of herself and so happy with her chosen fashion statement, I messaged mom and asked if I could share it with all of Oak Forest. I wanted to share it not only because of the ear to ear smile on that little angelic face, but to point out the importance of independence in young children.

It has been proven in research that fostering independence in children equates to more happiness and success later in life. If children are allowed to make their own decisions that are supported they will develop the belief they are competent and capable of making good decisions. This atmosphere of collaborative relationships will develop not only independence but efficacy. Competence is when a child can do a task, but efficacy is when a child believes they can do a task. This belief in themselves has been shown to make all the difference.

And Efficacy can only be developed through doing. Children need to be given the freedom to make decisions, make mistakes and intrinsically learn from them. This translates into mom and dad, stepping back and letting their children do it on their own, just like Dylan.

I have been fostering a case study on this very topic for about 13 years. My daughter was an independent child and started picking out her own clothes at the age of 4. At the time, I did not have the time or patience to fight with her so every morning, she wore what ever she wanted which included a Cinderella dress, she wore for 2 weeks straight, a snow suit in the middle of summer and a floor length red sequin dress that we bought at a thrift store. Every morning I was surprised at the imagination and creativity of my daughter's outfit.

Looking back, the self efficacy that my daughter developed was quite by accident because I was an over wrought mother of 3 more than a woman trying to foster crucial personality characteristics. And that is the beauty of mother hood. Sometimes we just need to step back, give them room for a running start, and watch them soar.

I imagine that Dylan had a wonderful day at kindergarten in her magnificent outfit that she chose all by herself with a thumbs up from mom. I also imagine that Dylan will go on to become a fantastic young lady who knows the importance of making decisions for herself and more importantly, believes that she can.

P.S. Dylan, I especially love the red leg warmers!