It all started with a day of inventory in his room to see what he had, what he needed, what he wanted, and what needed to go. He tried on nearly every stitch of clothing he had. All of his shirts (both long and short sleeved), all of his pants, socks, shorts, and jackets were put on, examined, removed and landed in one of three categories. There was Pile One, the "these clothes are pretty worn out, don't fit, and are not worth saving" pile. I think they will eventually head to the Salvation Army. There was Pile Two, the "these clothes are still fitting okay, and don't have TOO many holes or stains... I bet they can last another year" pile. Lastly, there was Pile Three, the "hardly worn, still in great shape, but gigantor children grow out of things VERY fast, so we will save these for Smaller Child" pile. Probably two thirds of the clothes landed in piles One or Three, leaving Larger Child with very little clothes left to start the school year.
The next day, I loaded up the two kids, packed the baby's lunch, grabbed the stroller, and headed to shop. The first store we went to was a big box store. I knew I could knock out the staples... i.e. socks, underwear, pants... and get out pretty cheap. BUT, this was also the location of our very first Mother/Son fight about what to wear. Being a boy, and being swayed by marketing, like most children are, he wanted to compile his ENTIRE wardrobe with obnoxious graphic tees of Spongebob, Batman, and Mario. This is where I learned a VERY valuable lesson that I hope to pass on to any mothers of young-ones out there who may have not reached this milestone yet.
If you give your children the ILLUSION of freedom, that is enough. We worked out a compromise. I told him he can pick out ONE of those graphic tees, and then he would need to pick out the rest in collard, solids, or striped shirts. I gave him the feeling that HE was choosing the clothes, when in reality it was a very controlled and select amount of options. Muah-ah-aaah. Sometimes we Moms have to be a little devious.
The next hurdle we faced was in the selection of footwear. He chose two pair of sneakers. One that were VERY comfortable, the other that were VERY cool. I told him I was going to let him choose. After going back and forth for some time, we decided that maybe a second opinion could be in store. So, we called Dad. After some discussion with Dad, Larger Child said, "You know, I think I'm going to Eenie, Meenie, Miney, Moe it." Aaaaand he did. (For the record, he ended up with the super Cool light up shoes.)
It was pretty much smooth sailing from there, though we did have some difficulty finding denim shorts. Apparently they are soooo not in right now. We took a break for lunch at the mall. LC chose Greek! (That's my boy!)
After the refueling, we picked up a few more shirts, and then went to choose a lunchbox, and thus another snag. There were two very cool lunchboxes. Again, we had a bit of a function over form argument. I suggested another meeting with Dad, but he mustered all of the decision making skills he could and made a decision. Ninja box it is!
We came home with ALL of the supplies we needed to have a fun filled, self confident, and successful school year. MY GOSH! To think, this is the first of the next 12 years. Hopefully they will all go this smooth. (Ha! Yeah right.)
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