Today Princess #1 and I had this argument regarding a rather garish pair of red socks adorned with pink and purple hearts. Normally wearing them wouldn't be an issue, if they were going to be hidden behind jeans and bulky tennis shoes. But Princess #1 was wanting to wear them with pink capri pants and an aqua shirt decorated with pastel butterflies. I pulled out a pair of plain white socks for her to wear instead (never mind the fact that it killed me that she wanted to wear socks with her capri pants at all - her shoes hurt her feet, so I was begrudgingly agreeing to the socks in the first place). But I just couldn't let her go out in those blasted red socks. Two sizes too big so the purple heels were actually up on her ankles, tops folded down like a bad 80's trend.
I expressed my displeasure for those dumb red socks and produced the white socks. Princess #1 immediately began tearing up and complaining that she wanted to wear the RED socks, not WHITE - the white ones didn't match (no, the irony was not lost on me). I told her again to take off the red socks and put on the white ones and through her tears she wailed "why?". And before I could catch myself I frustratingly replied "because I don't want the kids at school to make fun of you!". I immediately regretted my response. Do I really want to teach my child that it's important to worry about what other people think? That we should decide what to wear based on others reactions? I needn't have worried though, because immediately Princess #1 stopped crying and looked up at me with wide eyes. "But I don't care" was all she said. And in that moment I decided that I was the one that needed to learn the lesson this morning. I hugged her and sent her off to school - non matching red socks and all.
oh so been there and oh so feel your pain, it's so hard to balance your love for fashion, your dd's growing independence and life lessons.
ReplyDelete