You're wearing THAT??

Summer is nearly over...only two more weeks until that big yellow bus comes and whisks the eldest off to her first day of second grade!  She's much less than thrilled-- moping around, "I'll miss summer!", "I like sleeping in!", causing me to twitch just imaging what she'll be like at thirteen.  

How she feels about the time ticking away is quite clear.  How I feel...  Well, there are two impulses.

A) My sibling-entertainer baby won't be home with me all day everyday.  I'm going to have to make a concentrated effort to drive home as quickly as I can everyday to make sure I can see her before school, because I'll miss her like crazy.

B) My baby will be getting ready for the day in the mornings without me.  I'm going to have to make a concentrated effort to drive home as quickly as I can every single damn day to make sure I can see her before school just to ensure she isn't dressed like this:

Or her hair isn't looking like this:

The latter weighs heavier upon me than the former.  It makes me cherish my younger two, who are still at that tender age of "I'll wear whatever mom puts in front of me!" because they don't have their own opinions on fashion yet.  Who would've thought dressing a seven-year-old would be so rough?

I remember growing up and feeling so at odds with my parents about clothes.  Then again, I dressed more like this:

Than this:

Baggiest baggy jeans and my heavy metal rock band t-shirts?  Staples!  I chopped my hair super short because I couldn't figure out how to style it.  I was comfortable and happy.  And, I swore, I would never question my daughter's choices of clothing if I ever had a daughter (surprise! x 3!)  Her hair?  Whatever she wanted!  Her early years were spent dabbling in a bit of this:

And a bit of that:

She happily lifted her arms into whichever shirt came from the hanger in my hands even if she delighted more at the princess dresses than at the jeans and flower shirts.

Today, she balks and stomps her feet if I dare request that she not wear a dress for the tenth day in a row.  Her hair must be down around her face and if I try running that comb through those gnarled blonde locks even once more than her pre-determined number of acceptable brushstrokes, there will be hell (and eardrums) to pay.  The dresses aren't my main concern however.  Things like THIS:

No offense meant, it's just not my style.  But it IS every 6-10 year old in America's style....

Are my main concern.  I find myself opening my mouth and my mom or dad coming out, "You're wearing THAT?"  Or, "Uh, that's quite an interesting choice.  How about just for kicks let's change ______."   And it isn't even that she's combining green and red or plaids with stripes.  It's the styles.  It's what kids are wearing these days.

It's what they're selling in the STORES.  I walk by a Gymboree, look in the door at the front displays of Kids' clothing and cringe.  It's cool, it's trendy, it's hip.  And she's an "in" kind of kid, apparently.

Ok, I actually approved of this outfit.

So that's where I'll be in approximately two weeks.  Flying down the highway at breakneck speeds to ensure that my child is not going to school looking like "she's going to work with those shoulder pads!" (her words, not mine) but too poor to own a hairbrush or a washcloth to wipe the breakfast off of her face.

And thanking God I can still dress the babies like THIS: