The tween gets a new dress

Or, Still learning to be the mom she needs

The Old Navy parking lot had only two other cars parked in front of it at 6pm on a Thursday night, so I knew it would be a quick trip in and out: new dress for the ten-year-old, a new shirt for her dad, maybe an accessory from the checkout line because Old Navy has got the science of impulsing buying down, and seventeen minutes later I would have two people ready for the Daddy-Daughter dance over the weekend. Done and done, I was sure. How I shop is truly no different from how I live my life: check the box and do the next thing because there’s always a lot to do. Plus, I really have never enjoyed shopping, which I chalk up to not loving to spend money and not loving to look in mirrors and feeling personally victimized by overhead fluorescent lights more than once, but I digress.