Clothes Shopping

First, a disclaimer:  I’ve never liked shopping for clothes.  Not for me, nor for anyone else.  Baby clothes are kind of cute, but otherwise, count me out.   At a shopping mall or large clothing store, I become overwhelmed, overstimulated, and grumpy quite quickly. 

The time has come, however, for the annual spring shopping trip for my daughter.  We’ll head out in the near future to seek out tops, Capri pants, bathing suits, shorts, sandals, and an Easter dress.  I’m grateful that she’ll look at some of the bejeweled tank tops and short shorts with “hot” written across the bottom and  say, “that’s too crazy, mommy.”  We can still find common ground on the fashion end of things.  It’s the practical aspects of clothes we find challenging.

Most of the pants and shorts she owns were purchased less because of style and more because we’d been trying on pants for hours and these were the first, with big pockets, that actually fit. While almost everyone in 3^rd grade wears yoga pants or leggings to school, my child wears pants with pockets, because that’s where she likes to put her insulin pump.  It’s discreet, yet accessible.   She has a drawer full of fanny packs and belt clips.  These are fine under dresses, or to wear with pajamas, ballet clothes and softball uniforms.  Most days, though, she prefers to wear a pair of shorts or pants with the pump tucked securely away in a pocket.  The problem is that pockets are a rarity in girls’ clothes.

Next week, if history repeats itself, we’ll visit a dozen stores.  Some of them will sell no pants or shorts with pockets.  A couple will have lots of them, in bizarre colors and styles.   Others will have reasonable looking choices, but the size sevens will be too tight and the size eights will require a pair of stilts to be wearable.   And the last store we go into, whichever it is, will have cute shorts, springy Capri pants, and athletic shorts; all with pockets.  They’ll fit beautifully.  We’ll buy them, lots of them, whatever the cost.  Stay tuned…if we hit the mother-lode of pocketed shorts, you’ll read it first here!