Mother, I Forgive You!
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School Age Kids
Put a group of 30 something or indeed 40 something year old ladies together. Ask them about their Confirmation outfits and wait for the shrieks of hilarity. Grown women will shout each other down, vying to win the title of Most Horrendous Outfit Ever. Personally I feel I have a good chance. Cream pop socks and knee length corduroy skirt anyone?
So when it was my turn to be Mum who chooses, I was positively smug. Not for my daughter the shame of a brown velvet jacket (uh huh … to go with aforementioned skirt). Goodness no! My daughter would be able to look back confidently on this day and indeed, show off her photographs with complete self-assurance. What’s that about pride coming before a fall?
I hadn’t allowed for the fact that dressing a very petite 12 year old for a special occasion is akin to finding a genuine Chanel jacket for a fiver in a charity shop. (Impossible – I’ve looked!) Dresses that were suitable were too big. Dresses that fit were too young. (Or ‘ugh, that’s too girly, I’m not wearing that’) And can I just say, other dresses that fit were verging on tarty – yes, tarty! There was also the not-to-be-underestimated fact of the 12 year old having very definite opinions. I’m not wearing pink! Everyone else is wearing Hollister! That’s hideous! Or just, ‘NO!’ Frankly, some very truculent tones that make me fear the onslaught of the teen years.
We eventually cobbled together an outfit. But not before I was reduced to a quivering wreck, quietly weeping as I input my credit card details for an obscenely priced skirt on the Abercrombie website. And yes, she looked gorgeous. And yes, she was happy. Will she look back with pride in years to come? Who knows? But many, many years on from my own Confirmation, I have finally seen the light. Our mothers didn’t really have appalling taste. They didn’t dress us in vile outfits for their own amusement. The tween years are an awkward age to dress at the best of times … too young to wear teenage dresses, too old to wear the cute party dresses of earlier years. What I thought would be a fun shopping expedition was in fact, an endurance test of immense proportions. Let’s start a revolution. Confirmations at age 8, I say! Then we can all go to Next, pick a cute dress from the rail and be done with it. Ah yes, cream peaked hat notwithstanding … Mother, I forgive you!
So when it was my turn to be Mum who chooses, I was positively smug. Not for my daughter the shame of a brown velvet jacket (uh huh … to go with aforementioned skirt). Goodness no! My daughter would be able to look back confidently on this day and indeed, show off her photographs with complete self-assurance. What’s that about pride coming before a fall?
I hadn’t allowed for the fact that dressing a very petite 12 year old for a special occasion is akin to finding a genuine Chanel jacket for a fiver in a charity shop. (Impossible – I’ve looked!) Dresses that were suitable were too big. Dresses that fit were too young. (Or ‘ugh, that’s too girly, I’m not wearing that’) And can I just say, other dresses that fit were verging on tarty – yes, tarty! There was also the not-to-be-underestimated fact of the 12 year old having very definite opinions. I’m not wearing pink! Everyone else is wearing Hollister! That’s hideous! Or just, ‘NO!’ Frankly, some very truculent tones that make me fear the onslaught of the teen years.
We eventually cobbled together an outfit. But not before I was reduced to a quivering wreck, quietly weeping as I input my credit card details for an obscenely priced skirt on the Abercrombie website. And yes, she looked gorgeous. And yes, she was happy. Will she look back with pride in years to come? Who knows? But many, many years on from my own Confirmation, I have finally seen the light. Our mothers didn’t really have appalling taste. They didn’t dress us in vile outfits for their own amusement. The tween years are an awkward age to dress at the best of times … too young to wear teenage dresses, too old to wear the cute party dresses of earlier years. What I thought would be a fun shopping expedition was in fact, an endurance test of immense proportions. Let’s start a revolution. Confirmations at age 8, I say! Then we can all go to Next, pick a cute dress from the rail and be done with it. Ah yes, cream peaked hat notwithstanding … Mother, I forgive you!
