There’s a lot of “back to school” talk going on. To be fair, the weeks of the summer holidays are slowly coming to an end and parents up and down the UK are either sending their kids back to school or preparing to (our Scottish cousins are back at school this week) so there is a lot of talk about back to school shopping, and getting everything together needed to make the school term start smoothly.
We are halfway there, with that. But my tween came to me the other day with a complaint. She has grown you, see, and is almost as tall as me, and whilst she likes this, it does mean that she has outgrown a lot of her clothes, and whilst she may have some fancy new school uniform to wear in September, she seems to be lacking in casual clothes, to wear after school and at weekends, and she’s a tweenager, so of course, this is, apparently a DISASTER.
So, casual clothes shopping we must go.
Whilst I enjoy shopping trips with the tween they can be rather frustrating, with lots of trying on and deciding and discussions about what we like and what we don’t. I find it easier to sit with her and do some online browsing first, looking for girls clothing before we go shopping, to narrow down what she thinks she might like, and make a list of what she actually needs, as well as making some purchases online, which helps to reduce the amount of wandering around shops searching for the perfect outfits. That way we are organised and have a plan in mind to maximise our shopping time.
The tween is very fussy about what she wears and has a style all of her own and is far more fashion conscious and aware of what’s in style than me, so we have to come to a compromise when we shop for her, between what she wants, what works for the budget and me getting over the fact that she is old enough to choose her own clothes and knows what she likes. When she was little and I was shopping for baby clothes for her, it was a lot easier, but now of course, she gets a say in what she wears and what she WON’T wear too, so it’s a mother daughter compromise but it can be fun too.
Girls clothes can be tricky, when you are tall like my tween, so we tend to go for budget friendly basics as well as some junior designer clothes which fit well, and last her a couple of seasons. I prefer to spend money on items like winter coats and jeans and boots, that will last her and still look good after a few months of being worn.
She prefers a simple look, most of the time, but unlike me, likes to wear a lot more colour (apparently I am very boring because I wear a lot of black!) and she likes to find items that will match what she already has and will pair up nicely with other outfits. It’s also fun browsing and shopping with her, because sometimes we even splurge and treat me to something new too.
Because she is almost as tall as me, and in fact the same shoe size as me, it’s quite handy, we can share some shoes. We have some similar tastes, and she has already started borrowing things from my wardrobe, shoe shopping has taken on a whole new dimension.
So far we seem to have worked out clothes shopping, with minimal drama, other than the odd moment when we mildly disagree on what I think she would look nice in, versus her actually wanting to wear something. In fact, we probably spend more time arguing about clothes I want to choose to wear, when she thinks my fashion sense isn’t quite up to her standards!
The only real problem we have, when we both like an item and buy it, is who gets to wear it first, or who gets to choose when we both want to wear it at the same time. The answer to that, is apparently another shopping spree…
Ahh! Both of my girls care more about fashion than I do. lol I am all for wearing black but my tween loves the brighter outfits. My teen has just gone into a size 6 which means she has started trying to borrow my shoes. lol
I have the same problem here. I have just gone to look for a pair of shoes and realised she has taken them away with her camping… :O Cheeky things aren’t they? It’s a fun stage, even if we do find our stuff going missing!!