Karma While Shopping

 It's part of my family lore that when I was a kid, I was insufferable to shop with. My mom hates shopping any way, and she really hated shopping with me. She even asked my aunt to take me shopping for my First Communion dress. I had lots of opinions about what I liked and what was unacceptable. 

I did not have good fashion sense either. I prided myself on pairing the most incongruous items together. My gray polka-dot pants only looked good when paired with my hot pink newsprint shirt. 

I was not only particular about styles and colors, but I also wanted the most expensive clothing items. This was the era of Espirit and Guess jeans and Coca-Cola shirts, all which were far outside my parent's budget. 

So yesterday when I took Emma shopping, I could feel karma laughing in my ear. We had three missions: 

1. soccer shorts

2. bathing suit for our upcoming Spring Break trip

3. shorts for the same trip

Well, we found soccer shorts. I spent $30 on soccer shorts. Don't tell my mother; she'd shake her head in disbelief. Now that Emma is almost 14, she doesn't want to come out and say it, but those cheap shorts I grabbed at Walmart for years aren't quite cutting it. And because I'm a sucker, and I remember what it felt like to crave the just-right-name-brand, I caved and bought the $30 Nike shorts. I still can't believe it. 

Then we headed to Target for bathing suits. Hold me, Lord. 

I held up a cute, modest green bikini top with a little stitched pattern. She wrinkled her nose, saying, "Mmmm, I don't love that pattern." There was no pattern, but mkay. 

"What about this one?" I asked, holding up a black and white striped top. She scrunched her face. "That's too stripey." Oooookay. 

"Sorry, Mom." 

And here she got me. I don't want her to be sorry for expressing her opinion. In fact, we've both learned our lesson after I've bought items of clothing she didn't really want, only for them to sit in her dresser. I've told her no more. She gets to have a say in what she wears but has to be honest. And I want to raise her to stand strong in her opinion, to know what she believes, especially about her own body. 

And so we kept searching. The white top with lots of geometric patterns was "too bright." The solid black top was "too plain." The pink top was "too low" (thank God). 

So the search continues for a bathing suit. Don't even ask me about the shorts. 

Once we got home I sent my mom an apology text. 

And just for fun, here she is yesterday doing an impression of a "Facebook Mom," whatever that means.