Sunday, January 4, 2015

What do you want to be when you grow up?

Shourai no yume wa nani?

As a late Christmas present, I took the Pumpkin Princess clothes shopping. The four of us went to the mall. The Pumpkin Daddy and Prince went to the arcade to play some game involving ghost spirits and collector cards, and the Pumpkin Princess made a beeline to a little shop on the third floor that was full of trendy tween items.

When we got there, she pointed to a torso dressed in a red plaid flannel shirt (bit my tongue and did NOT say that she already had a plaid flannel shirt), acrylic long sleeved striped knit (static electricity nightmare), and denim shorts (at least it came with a cute belt). I tried my best not to cringe as I shelled out twice the amount I would have paid in Uniqlo for similar items. Welcome to the world of tween girl motherhood, I guess.

For the past week, she has worn this outfit or at least parts of it (the shirt and/ or knit with her Uniqlo jeans from last year, the shorts with her Minnie Mouse sweatshirt, etc). At least she's wearing and enjoying the stuff she chose.

I remember my mom couldn't (or was that wouldn't?) spend the money to dress me the way I felt I should be dressed when I was a child. This may or may not have led to a strange phase of overspending  on fashion that lasted about a decade (from when I was about 20 to when I was 30). It wasn't a bad thing, and I never bought what I couldn't afford. I look back at the things I bought back then (or sometimes I find them during a closet purge) and shake my head in disbelief. I hope the Pumpkin Princess will have a more balanced fashion experience.

Especially since she wants to be a fashion designer when she grows up. No comment.

2 comments:

Annie Crow said...

I know a couple of girls her age that are also seriously into fashion, it's neat to see what they come up with. Have you taught her how to sew?

I started D sewing by hand this past weekend (finally hauled out my machine and made patches for the 8?! pairs of little boy pants that need to be mended). He wanted to learn how to use the machine but I think he's a couple of years away from it still.

pumpkinmommy said...

We tried sewing doll clothes. The half-done project is sitting somewhere untouched for the past 8 months or so. It had a high risk of being decluttered…

My mom buys thrift store clothes for the kids, but said she couldn't find any pants for the Pumpkin Prince. The boys' (but not girls') pants rack had no pants sized for boys between the ages of 4 and 8. We never could figure out why until the Pumpkin Prince came home with torn knees three days in a row...