Today’s parenting adventure

The girl starts first grade on Monday. All summer long, she’s been wearing her old clothes, but the school district (reasonably enough) frowns on hot pants and miniskirts. The rule is “fingertip-length,” which I didn’t understand at first (her fingers are only a few inches long, after all) but have learned means when her hands hang at her sides, there has to be cloth down at least as far as her fingertips.

This meant an afternoon of shopping.

At my daughter’s age, I wasn’t a fan of clothes shopping. I certainly would not have tried on an outfit, sang a full song (often with choreography), and insisted on “checking my moves” in the mirror. For every single outfit. She told me she was only going to do it for the outfits she liked. Let’s see — mostly pink, some purple, hearts, flowers, glitter, a bit of black, and one superhero shirt (Batgirl, Wonder Woman, and Supergirl). Guess how often she didn’t like the outfits?

Now, not everything was a perfect fit — some things, a 7 fit better, some an 8 (and to get fingertip length, we had to go with 8 for skirts, and I’ll put darts in at the waistline) — but most of it worked well for her. Which means it’s a good thing I took my iPad and read on my Kindle app.

And then, after we finished buying almost an entire new wardrobe? We had to buy shoes. For both of us.

She found like four pairs of shoes she wanted (yeah, not even at “buy one, get one half off”) and was sad she couldn’t find a pair of boots. Me, I wound up with a pair of men’s shoes because it’s really hard to find women’s shoes in an E-width, which my right foot (but not my left) needs. An hour and a half to end up with one pair of shoes each.

When we got home, she immediately started in with a fashion show so her dad (and brother, but mostly dad) could see her new outfits. She wasn’t going to take the new pajamas (Frozen) off, but I told her if she kept them on, she’d have to go to bed. (No, no, anything but that!) so she wore her new pink dress for the evening instead.

I think she’s still nervous about a new, bigger, school — but at least I should be able to get her out of bed with, “Which new clothes do you want to wear today?”

Any adventures in your life lately?

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12 Comments

  1. Nothing to compare to that. Just a cat trying to bring a chipmunk (live) into the house…

  2. Ummmm. I hate to say it, but I think I’ll stick with full body itching (the poison ivy has gone systemic, but so far no weeping rashes, so I’m hopeful it will subside soon) to that shopping experience and a fashion show. See, if I’d have had kids, I’m absolutely certain they would have been girly girls and juvenile delinquents.

    But let’s hope that “What outfit do you want to wear today?” gets her up and out of bed for the whole year!

  3. LOL. My daughter wasn’t a shopper at all. In high school I gave her $10 and she went to the local Salvation Army store to buy ‘grunge’ clothes. As a child though, it was new clothes every 3-4 months because of growth spurts. She rarely had more than a weeks worth of clothes at any one time.

    I have no comparable activities this week though we are getting ready for the fair (I’m on the board) on Sept 5-7. Which really means September 2nd through 7th. Lots of last minute things to get done.

    • I tend to buy the clothes just a bit big to get them to last longer — and I’ve been known to add ruffles and such to keep things wearable. Growth spurts are killer.

      I saw on your blog that you were working on the fair. It sounds like fun! I haven’t been to a fair since . . . high school, maybe?

  4. Exciting times! I hope she loves her new school.

    Our three daughters are grown up now, but they’re all starting new jobs this autumn (one promotion, one sideways move across the city within the same organisation, and one to a different company) so there’s a definite back-to-school feel in the air. Plus our two toddler grandsons are both starting nursery in September. All change!

    • Lots of new adventures everywhere!

      I thought your grandsons were going to be spending time with you, which was one of the things prompting your writing deadline?

      • We’ll be having our grandsons when they’re not at nursery (they can’t start full time straight away) and our baby granddaughters all office hours. Probably. Although our eldest daughter’s new job will have unusual hours, so that half of the equation isn’t firm yet.

  5. I retract my statement. A fashion show is preferable to this itchiness.

    • Oh, dear. I don’t dare offer hugs, but you do have my sympathy. Would calamine or caladryl lotion help?

      • I’m trying all kinds of things. So far, it hasn’t required a trip to the doctor, which is very unusual. A soak in Aveeno was tonight’s attempt. No lasting effect.

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