Shopping for clothes with my daughter used to be easy. When\nshe was young.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There was nothing to it. We would walk into a store, I would\ngrab the first shirt that had a bear or a giraffe on it, she would coo and\nshout, \u201cI LOVE it!!!\u201d and before you could say, \u201clickety split,\u201d we were on the\nway to the cash register. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
How things change when you hit the teenage years. When your\ndaughter turns 13 and fashions herself a fashionista. Someone who can strut\nabout a store, trying on everything, saying things like, \u201cDarling, I think that\nlooks di-VINE on you,\u201d and thinking her father is not only made of money, but\ndoesn\u2019t mind plunking it down over this or that. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
An $84 crop top with a manufactured hole to look like a rat\nate it? Yes, please!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She\u2019s no longer young.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A week ago we were down in Tampa visiting family and\ncatching a traveling show, \u201cKinky Boots.\u201d My wife wanted to swing by a\ndepartment store to return something and pick up something else. So as she went\nto tend to business, I was deposited in the young ladies\u2019 clothing \u201carena\u201d\nwhere I was to tend to the young lady, Miss Prancy Prance, who dashed about the\ndisplays, \u201cooh-ing\u201d and \u201cahh-ing\u201d over this and over that. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cCome, come,\u201d I heard more than once. \u201cDon\u2019t leave a girl\nwaiting while she\u2019s SHOP-PINGGG!!!\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I slunked about like a grumbly sack of potatoes. (Slunk \u2013\nPast tense of slink \u2026 \u201cto move or go in a furtive, abject manner, as from fear, cowardice, or shame.\u201d Yes, slunk!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She looked through everything, pulling items from the rack,\nholding up in front of herself and asking how it looked. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a ball gown!\u201d I would say. \u201cNot only that, those are\nreal pearls. And I think real gold leafing. That will cost more than your first\ncar. Put it back! If you hold something more than 30 seconds in here, they bill\nyou for it.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
She stood there, staring at me. \u201cReally?!?\u201d she said with a\nsmile. I could see her lips move as she counted out: \u201c\u2026 13, 14, 15 \u2026\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cPUT \u2026 IT \u2026 BACK!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At some point, one of the saleswomen \u2013 obviously amused and\nsmelling an easy commission \u2013 saw that I was struggling under the weight of what\nlooked like a hay bale of clothes my daughter had stacked upon me. Apparently,\nsaleswomen know that when they hear the sounds of fatherly knees popping, they\nshould come running. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOh my,\u201d she said. \u201cWould you like me to run and get a\nwagon, and then start you a mortgage with our loan office?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYes, that would be lovely,\u201d my daughter said. \u201cWe have lots\nof shopping to do.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Oh, this is not happening! What happened to the old days.\nThe easy days. The cheaper days. Those young-kid days. But I went along with\nit, and showed some interest. And even enjoyed myself along the way. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The hay bale of clothes didn\u2019t come home with us, I never\nhad to go to the department store\u2019s mortgage office and no ball gowns with real\npearls graced our shopping bags. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I also learned that shirts with bears or giraffes just won\u2019t\ndo the trick anymore. Not at this age. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Shopping for clothes with my daughter used to be easy. When she was young.<\/p>\n
There was nothing to it. We would walk into a store, I would grab the first shirt that had a bear or a giraffe on it, she would coo and shout, \u201cI LOVE it!!!\u201d and before you could say, \u201clickety split,\u201d we were on the way to the cash register. <\/p>\n
How things change when you hit the teenage years. When your daughter turns 13 and fashions herself a fashionista. Someone who can strut about a store, trying on everything, saying things like, \u201cDarling, I think that looks di-VINE on you,\u201d and thinking her father is not only made of money, but doesn\u2019t mind plunking it down over this or that. <\/p>\n
An $84 crop top with a manufactured hole to look like a rat ate it? Yes, please!<\/p>\n
She\u2019s no longer young.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[575,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1934","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2019-nutshells","category-parenthoodandchildren"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1934","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1934"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1934\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1935,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1934\/revisions\/1935"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}