It’s inevitable. You want your kids to be independent and get themselves dressed, but all too often they wander out of their room with some of their clothes on backwards. A simple magic marker trick helps my kids with this common problem.

I teach my kids to look for the dot rather than just the tag. It’s easier for them to check the front, so I use a brightly colored permanent marker to make an eraser-size dot in the waistband of their underwear, pants, tights, shorts, and pajamas. When they’re getting themselves dressed, they just look for the dot and remember to put it close to their belly button. As a side note, I also use a thin-point magic marker to write sizes on the back waistband of any untagged items like tights.Like the shoe arrows I mentioned in a previous post, this is a very simple little trick that will save you time and your kids tons of uncomfortable mistakes. Just thought I’d pass it on.