Shopping with kids is not for sissies
Sibling rivalry is alive and well in our household. Strangely enough, I thought that was something the girls would outgrow when one of them left home. Not so.
Daughter #1 is adjusting well to college life and has quit coming home to do laundry every weekend. That's not to say I never hear from her. We e-mail and talk on the phone almost every day.
Last week I had a call from her asking me to come to Manhattan for the evening. We talked awhile and made plans to meet one evening for dinner at the mall. Right before we said goodbye and hung up, she added, "Oh, I might need some new shoes." Arrrrgh!
Now I wasn't born yesterday and I knew the "I'm-missing-you-come-see-me" line really translated to "I'd like to eat out. Come and bring money." It was the comment about shoes that set off the warning bells.
If there's anything I hate more than shopping, it's shopping with children and spouses, and/or shopping for shoes. All that rates right up there with a root canal or emergency surgery.
At the last minute, the Younger One decided to go along. Add to the mix a precocious nephew who kept me laughing all the way to Manhattan and by the time I got there I was actually in somewhat of a "shopping" mood.
That came to a bone-jarring end when we got to the shoe store and the sibling-rivalry snake reared its ugly head. The bickering began as soon as Daughter #1 decided to check another store for shoes before the Younger One was ready to go. Hope springs eternal so I chose to ignore the comments and hoped things wouldn't escalate. That's like trying to ignore the tornado as it rips the front door right off the hinges.
At another store Daughter #1 looked at a salmon-colored coat and everyone agreed it was hideous. I did the motherly thing and refused to buy it, telling her it was the kind of thing she'd wear once and then hate. The Younger One was downright gleeful that I had vetoed the coat purchase and immediately cheered up.
I thought the evening was going to end on a somewhat stable, if not happy note. That was before the Younger One decided she also needed new shoes. Then the bickering began in earnest. The proverbial last straw came when they started talking about me like I wasn't there. I believe I left them standing in one store hissing at each other while I walked out and pretended not to know them.
Ever the optimist, I thought I could diffuse the situation by calling a time-out to the shopping fiasco and taking everyone to dinner. Instead of taking them to a nice restaurant, we ate at the food court in the mall. After all, I reasoned, if they wanted to behave like children, they could eat like children.
Naturally, that backfired on me. Daughter #1 was happy to get food she didn't have to pay for and the Younger One refused to eat at all. Goes to show what I know about parenting.
The evening progressed in the same manner and by the time we left Daughter #1 at the dorms the Younger One wasn't speaking. Daughter #1 was still shoeless. And I was vowing never to shop again.
— DONNA BERNHARDT
