I taught my 3-year-old to dress herself. She's now a confident and outgoing 5-year-old.

The author's oldest is now 5 years old and very outgoing.

Courtesy of the author

About 15 months ago, I had my second child. In the lead-up to the birth, chaotic, sleep-deprived memories of life with a newborn came flooding back. My partner and I knew exactly what was coming our way this time, and we wanted to be prepared.To try to make the transition to a two-child life easier, we decided to teach our daughter to be more independent before the new baby arrived. We hoped that this would help when my partner went back to work, and I would often be splitting my attention between a newborn baby and a preschooler.We taught her how to get dressedMy daughter was almost 4 when her brother was born, and she's always been a confident and capable child. We decided to use this to our advantage, knowing that she was both physically able and emotionally more equipped to understand why the baby might take up more of our time.So we got to work, tackling one thing at a time. First, we taught her how to dress herself in the mornings. We patiently watched (and winced) as she learned to pull on leggings, navigate her way through the sleeves and neckholes of sweaters, until she was even an expert at slipping on her own tights. Soon she was putting together her outfits each morning, which helped no end when I was tackling a screaming newborn into the stroller for the day care run.