HELLO EVERYONE. I JUST GOT BACK FROM THE MALL. I WENT SCHOOL SHOPPING TODAY FOR THREE CHILDREN AND THE REASON I AM SHOUTING IS BECAUSE MY EARS HAVEN'T STOPPED RINGING FROM THE RIDICULOUS MUSIC AT EACH OF THE STORES MY KIDS LIKE TO SHOP IN. WAIT...HOLD ON...that's a little better.
Ever since I was in school myself, I hated school shopping. Every summer Mom would take us to get new clothes, and every summer Dad would be dumbstruck as to how much they cost. "$20 for a pair of dungarees?" Just typing that word made me smile as I thought of him - the only man I knew who called jeans dungarees. We'd get our new school clothes, new sneakers, and a haircut usually the day before school started. We'd get a couple of pencils, a couple of pens, a Trapper Keeper and some paper. That was it. Now - you have to mortgage the house to school shop for three kids.
Starting with school supplies - each one of my three had a full page list of what was "required" for them to bring to school. Basically it was something along the lines of 14 packs of pencils, 12 packs of pens, 17 boxes of tissues, 212 marble notebooks (not spiral anymore), 37 glue sticks, Dry-erase markers, and a partridge in a pear tree. Oh - and a U-Haul rental to get all this crap into school for the first day. Apparently not only do I have to supply MY kids with this stuff, but they put it all together as a "community" so I'm potentially buying notebooks for the kid down the road that throws rocks at my kid on the playground.
I have three kids - this year, they are going into 8th, 4th, and 1st grades. The 1st grader is Emily - she was easy. She got a TON of clothes given to her that were never worn by a girl who doesn't like "girly" clothes. Emily's school clothes shopping consisted of underwear, socks, and sneakers. Cole and Wyatt are a different story. Cole basically informed us that if we picked it out, he wasn't wearing it. Everything these two like has to have something to do with that god-awful skateboarding culture. Because of this, the majority of their shopping yesterday was done at Hot Topic, Zumiez, PacSun - all the stores that charge an extra $15 because the bag says "Hot Topic" "Zumiez" or "PacSun" on it. These are also the stores that blast the music louder than I play it in the car. Music that I think the "employees" (I won't call them workers, because all I saw was slacker looking kids sitting around looking mad that they had to actually get up and take care of us as we spent a lot of money in their store) choose from their personal collections. There was a ton of unintelligible screaming and a couple of F-bombs in the "music" we were serenaded with. That's especially nice when I have my 6 year old with me.
I understand that fitting in is important - probably because I never quite fit in with any one group when I was in school. I know that if their friends find out they got their jeans at Target, they'll get picked on. Well, it's 2010. None of us has a ton of money, so we shop where it makes the most sense. Ironically, Hot Topic had a nice sale on their jeans yesterday so they may have been the cheapest place we went. Janel had to tell me this though - I had to go out in the hallway with Emily because I didn't want her subjected to the loud, inappropriate for a public shopping setting music I was blessed with.
I actually stated yesterday that I would rather have the back of my legs shaved with a cheese grater and then squat in a bowl of alcohol than to go through that ordeal again. The boys ended up with some decent clothes, but with what we had to endure....I think I'll stay home next year.
I know many of you have kids. Share your experiences. Comment freely - let me know that others share my pain. Comments here or Facebook welcomed as always.
I hear you and agree with you on just about all that you wrote. I have only 2 girls, 12 and 17, but it is definitely all about fitting in.
ReplyDeleteWe did stop at Hot Topic and Zumiez just like you. Some of the "workers" at Hot Topic are pretty sketchy looking but when you actually start talking to them, they are pretty nice. I have to agree about the music tho. I guess I'm just getting old!
We did a lot of shopping at Aeropostale as they were having a really good sale. At least they try to make you feel like it's a really good sale. Buy one get one free sounds incredible but when you look at the original prices...well, sometimes you just have to grin and bear it. We dragged my 6'2" boyfriend along just to carry all the loot and that was a blessing.
The trip for school supplies to Staples was the worst. The aisles were jam packed and what I thought was going to be some major savings turned out not so much when I looked at the fine print that stated the first 2 or 3 of each item was the 10 cent or 30 cent sale price but if you wanted to stock up and buy more than that, uh oh, full price.
All and all, we did have a good time but lots of money spent. I guess it's worth it to see the smile on the girls faces, at least until they got home and started arguing. LOL
Take care Bill!!!!