Tom Cruise: Suri 'Won't Wear' Pants

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Celebrity Baby Blog readers know that Suri Cruise loves her dresses, and Tom Cruise admits that it’s hard to get her into anything else! Calling his 2 ½-year-old daughter a "girlie-girl," the actor explains that for he and wife Katie Holmes, getting their headstrong little one dressed each day is an issue.

"She won’t wear pants. Kate finally got her in jeans the other day. We put the pants on and walk away and the pants are off and the dress is on!"

Coincidentally, we launched our "Suri’s Stylish Year" gallery this morning, part of PEOPLE’s Best of 2008 package. Check out Suri’s different dress looks here, then come back to this post and tell us which were your favorites!

Source: Entertainment Tonight via OK!

Comments

All I can say is Thank You, Tom for clearing that up. They don’t “force” her to wear dresses to fulfill some fantasy.

- Natasha on November 24th, 2008

Anyone who has kids knows you can’t force them to wear something they don’t want to. She looks pretty happy to me so I am pretty sure if she didn’t wanna weare the dress the world would know!

- Shannon on November 24th, 2008

Oh, that makes much more sense now. I was like that too when I was 6 or 7. For a full year I did not once wear pants, I would throw a tantrum if my mother tried to get me in some because I felt like a boy if she put me in them. So she bought me winter dresses with long sleeves and put tights on me when it got colder and I was able to have a nice girlie year. ^^ Looks like it will be the same for little Suri!

- Alice on November 24th, 2008

My niece when she was that age hated wearing pants too. She would cry and say… “I want to wear my drrressss”. lol

- Kaylee on November 24th, 2008

That little girl sure is darling….

- Amber on November 24th, 2008

If Suri has this kind of mind of her own at 2 1/2 I can’t imagine what this child will be like to deal with in 10 years lol!!!

I never had issues with Suri in dresses…the only thing I hated was seeing her in a dress with no jacket outside….I guess she refuses to wear them as well!!

- JM on November 24th, 2008

btw my cousin was the exact opposite at Suri’s age she’d throw a fit if her mom tried to put her in a dress. She just wanted pants! And well 17 years later she is still the same way!!!!! Kids are funny.

- JM on November 24th, 2008

Absolutely understand. My daughter went from girly dresses only to skorts and tops at 4 and now at 10 is a total tomboy and I can’t get her out of jeans and tshirts. Pick your battles is a good mantra.

- Lorelei on November 24th, 2008

My daughter will be 3 in March, and this past summer, she was the exact same way! For some reason she called her dresses “mermaid dresses” and refused to wear anything else. She still wears them at home, however, we live in Ohio and along with her refusal to wear tights, dresses just aren’t an option for the cold months!

- Anne on November 24th, 2008

Ha ha, I say give it a few years and this will be a tomboy (no pun intended!) Suri! One of my little cousins was constantly dressed in pink and/or dresses, firstly her mother’s choice, then her own choice, and all of a sudden, she did a 180 and refused to put on a dress anymore. She’s a teenager now and has been through every phrase there is, punk, goth, nu rave to name only three, but will still not wear a dress! Occasionally she’ll wear a skirt, but it’s an increasing rarity! It will be interesting to see how Suri chooses as she grows!

- phoebe on November 24th, 2008

I figured it was more Suri loving to wear dresses than Tom and Katie “forcing” her to wear them. That just sounded ridiculous.

That new gallery of Suri is way too cute! She is such a little fashionista! I love it!

- Stephany on November 24th, 2008

At that age, I just wanted to be like my big brother SOOO much, that I only wanted to wear his old hand me down clothes. As it was a cheap solution, it suited Mom just fine!

- Susan on November 24th, 2008

I use to be the same way. I use to wear only dresses and now I am a jeans and t-shirt girl and would have to pay me a lot of $ to wear a dress now. :):):) Good for Suri. She is her own little person. Love when they get to the age where you cant tell them a thing and they do the complete opposite. :):)

- michelle on November 24th, 2008

that’s all I have to say lol

- ERICKA on November 24th, 2008

My grandaughter was and is the same way – she says “pants are for boys!”, my other grandaughter is 2 1/2 and is obsessed with her crocs, won’t wear anything but her pink crocs. Hey, we like our own comfy clothes, don’t we?

- Grandma on November 24th, 2008

Grandma, I believe you are right. When I was about 2 1/2, I insisted on wearing a belt that had been my big brother’s. The belt was red and it said his name (Alan) over and over and over again. So I would be in a dress, or a skirt, or pants and always with the ALAN ALAN ALAN ALAN belt. But when it comes to picking battles – that was one that no one was going to win. So Mom let me wear the Alan belt. And in the end – we got some great pictures for it!

- Susan on November 24th, 2008

Looks like she also insists on wearing the same shoes…Luckily those little gold shoes go with everything. Too cute!

- Nicole on November 24th, 2008

There are things I am learning about Suri, she loves the gold shoes, hates pants and sweaters, hates strollers, hates anything in her hair etc. What a character. She is my favourite celebrity child. Beautiful or what!

- Dorothy on November 24th, 2008

she sounds just like me at that age. from age 2-6 or 7 i refused to wear pants. only dresses and skirts. i wanted to make sure i didnt look like a boy. lol i was a total girly girly just like suri.drove my mom nuts. haha

- Renee on November 24th, 2008

Pack the dresses up for the season and put them away where she can’t see them. Lay out several pairs of pants and cute tops on the bed. Say she can choose the ones she wants to wear. Kids love thinking they’re in charge and she’ll love being able to pick out her own clothes.

- Daria on November 24th, 2008

I’m a bit surprised that reader make suggestions how to “make” Suri wear pants, why should she? I think it’s great that she has her own mind and as long as it’s age appropriate everythings’s fine.
I was never that extreme but I’ve always been a girlie-girl and still am (I’m 30) and my favorite colours are and have always been pink and purple. So what? And if she decides later in life that she prefers pants and jeans that’s great as well.

She’s a cute little girl but I wouldn’t want to be her with all these paparrazzi around!

- denise on November 24th, 2008

Sounds exactly like my daughter – starting aroudn 3, it’s no pants, no shorts, only skirts and dresses. Whatever. There are bigger battles to fight.

- Heather on November 24th, 2008

My daughter was exactly the same way – could not get the child into anything but her dresses!

Suri is adorable and I really like the picture of her with the umbrela, but what really bothers me is the kid in hard shoes with no socks! Little kids should wear socks!

- leanne on November 24th, 2008

I was a girlie-girl too. I remember hating pants, especially jeans, they felt too “scratchy” to me. Now I live in jeans.

- Alyssa on November 24th, 2008

but why all the frou-frou party dresses? suppose her lifestyle never lends itself to play shoes, either?

- k on November 24th, 2008

I have to laugh. My now 4 year old has been on a dress kick for a year and a half now!! IF she wears pants, they have to be “soft pants”. I gave up on the fight (Even though she has all her older sisters hand me down pants!)We now havea closet FULL of dresses…

- momof2girlies on November 24th, 2008

I agree with Daria.
And I dont mind Suri wearing dresses but I just think she should be dressed warm for the cold weather. I wonder if all of you who were girly girls as a child were allowed to wear dresses without tights and a warm jacket in the winter??? I guess no.
Anyway Suri is a sweet little girl.

- Karo on November 24th, 2008

Maybe this is a much too laid back attitude but I think that if Suri is refusing to wear trousers, tights, cardigans, coats etc then it’s alright for Tom & Katie to shrug their shoulders and say ‘OK then’.

I’m sure they’ve explained to Suri that it’s cold out and she should wear XXX but I don’t really think it’s something worthy of any of them getting worked up over.

Suri will soon learn once they get outside and she’s cold that perhaps a party dress wasn’t the best choice of clothing, she can tell Mommy she’s cold and soon have a sweater.

- Colette on November 24th, 2008

I dressed my daughter in pants and bright colours when she was younger. I did not like all the pastels and pinks. But when she reached pre-school, she wanted to wear more dresses like her friends and is very girly these days.

- britmama on November 24th, 2008

I hated wearing dresses, skirts, and jogging suits as a little girl. For first grade picture day, my mom made me wear a dress. My eyes were bloodshot from crying. She never tried that again!

- J-Lin on November 24th, 2008

if she’s so against pants, how come we just recently saw her wearing them??

Regardless, I think it’s good to let your kids pick their clothes, as long as they are clean and weather appropriate.

No one is saying it’s fine to let her go without a coat or tights or anything… just that you pick your battles and go from there.

- Kat on November 24th, 2008

Daria- I see no problem with her wearing dresses in the winter as long as she also wears tights and a coat when outdoors, which, in all fairness, she does seem to be doing more lately.

leanne- Maybe Suri is like me and hates to wear socks (heck, I don’t even like wearing shoes!).

Kat- Tom just explained that in this article. He said that Katie “finally got her in jeans the other day” but that usually she refuses to wear pants!

Anyway, I am extremely happy to see a Suri post with mostly POSTIVE comments for a change!

Anyway, I, too have always thought that it’s Suri who wants to wear the dresses. I never really went through a “dress” phase myself. In fact, not only did I wear my brother’s hand-me-downs, but I actually LIKED wearing them! I didn’t care a bit that I was sometimes wearing “boys” clothes.

Oh, and momof2girlies, I was just like your youngest daughter in regards to “soft pants” as a child, and actually, I’m still that way today! I wear pants, but they are always knit (a.k.a. soft) pants. I can’t stand jeans or other, as I call them, “stiff” pants.

- CelebBabyLover on November 25th, 2008

That is the funniest thing to me. My sister just started going to school and she has to wear uniforms. When school forst started, every day, she’s tell my mama “I don’t wanna wear that; I wanna wear this tomorrow.” And then they’d go over how on the weekend, she can wear that but to go to school, she has to wear the uniform. Needless to say, that didn’t go over too well. LOL Stuff like that just never crossed my mind when I was that age.

- Nina on November 25th, 2008

Can I just ask a UK/US language difference question? Why do American’s call trousers pants? I find language differences fascinating, but more so in this case, as pants are underwear, and sometimes it catches me out, like when I first read this post, I was thinking ‘why is a father telling people his 2-yr-old is going commando?!’. The other difference in this area is the whole ‘fanny’ thing, because that doesn’t refer to the same area in the UK as the US! Does anyone know how the words came to mean different things?

BTW, I have now realised that Suri’s post is NOT referring to her actual underwear lol. Thank God!

- phoebe on November 25th, 2008

Not sure Phoebe, I’ve just always called them pants

- Natasha on November 25th, 2008

Nina;
Re: your US/UK question about trousers vs pants… I think it comes from a shortened version of the old word pantaloons (19th century), which are, essentially trousers, and the word has been shortened to pants over the years.

- Grandma on November 25th, 2008

We have sort of the same issue with our 5-year old. I have finally gotten her to understand that she can’t wear dresses to school. They have asked that the kids not wear dresses because they are involved in gymnastics, dance, and other activities that are not conducive to dress-wearing.

I pick out their outfits each week and put 8 choices in the organizer in the closet. They have to wear an outfit from there 5 days a week and are allowed to dress themselves on the weekends. Most mornings, I get up and feed the girls breakfast and get them dressed and fix their hair before heading out to work. Before I leave, I wake up my husband to get them off to school. I tell him that they are dressed, fed, lunches packed, etc. My 7-year old always asks me to pick out an outfit for her (from the pre-picked outfits). I have just recently discovered that my 5-year old waits until I leave the house, and then goes and changes into what she wants to wear for the day. Just last week I went to pick her up and found her dressed in yellow capris, a green turtleneck, purple socks, and her pink crocs (in 30 degree weather). I got after my husband for letting her go out dressed inappropriately for the weather. His response was that I was the one who dressed her. I turned and looked at our daughter, she smirked, and replied, “I lied to daddy, didn’t I?”

- Dana on November 25th, 2008

Hey there, thanks to you guys who answered my trousers/pants question. Grandma, I think you got confused about who asked it, it was me, the name of the person making the comment is posted below, not above. Thanks again for answering!

- phoebe on November 26th, 2008

“The other difference in this area is the whole ‘fanny’ thing, because that doesn’t refer to the same area in the UK as the US! Does anyone know how the words came to mean different things?”

I have no idea, but my father’s former boss discovered that difference the hard way when he jokingly told an audience that he gave his employees “a pat on the fanny” to motivate them-in Scotland. Someone had to rush the stage to whisper to him what he had just said!

The dress thing doesn’t bother me at all. That said, it’s by no means an excuse for not dressing her appropriately for the weather.

- Lauren on November 26th, 2008

Lauren- Lately they HAVE been dressing her appropritley for the weather!

- CelebBabyLover on November 27th, 2008

I personally just don’t understand the idea or concept of a child much less a 2 1/2 year old telling her parents that she “won’t” wear pants.

My daughter is 8 and this is the first time she has told me she “won’t” wear something (Tights/leggings/panty hose – not sure what everyone calls them, we personally call them tights – she doesn’t like them – says there itchy). BUT if I tell her she’s going to wear them, she wears them period end of story no if’s and’s or but’s about it.

But as my mother-in-law tells me all the time you have to pick your “no’s”. So if they don’t see anything wrong with it then that’s them and their child.

I guess I’m just the mean mommy …….. idk

- Bancie1031 on November 28th, 2008

My daughter is EXACTLY the same. She’s 5 and she’s been like this for around 2 1/2 years. Only wants to wear dresses/skirts. I have to battle with her to wear pants when it’s cold.

- Robin - Ontario Canada on November 28th, 2008

I don’t think parents should “force” kids to wear pants if they want to wear dresses. However, I do think it’s the parents’ role to “force” children to wear coats and tights when the weather is cold. I get the impression with little (adorable) Suri that whatever she wants, she gets. That might not be such a bad thing, but a 2.5 year old hardly knows what is best for herself so I think it becomes the parents’ job to step in and say, “Keep your jacket on.”

- Anna Kate on December 3rd, 2008

I think Suri is adorable!

I love the picture of her where her hair is cut and her bangs are short and out of her eyes so you can see her beautiful eyes!

Katie is clearly such a great mom……hands on not afraid to get dirty…like when she is holding Suri while she eats her cookie….Katie you can tell,….. puts her daughter on top of her priority list and that is so nice to see when most celebs use nannies most of the time……

Keep up the good work katie and Tom you truly set an example of how parents should treat their kids!

Clary

- Claty Nicole on January 10th, 2009