Today, almost every female in my immediate family will be descending upon a shopping mall. More specifically, we are all going to one particular dress shop in a mall on the other side of town for a special shopping trip — my niece is picking out her prom dress(es).
I remember doing this with both my sisters — going to the shops and trying on one dress after another. Driving the sales clerks to moments of panic and frustration over the thought that we’d never find that perfect dress. Eventually, the one dress that was “the one” would emerge from all the others. And it would be exceptional.
I think all the tÃas and abuelitas are going today/ My niece knew that, despite her recent tendency to keep her aunts and grandmothers out of the loop, today we all had to be included. There were two main reasons for that:
- we would have never forgiven her for “forgetting” to invite us to today’s outing
- with all of us here, she can fall in love with a dress in a higher cost bracket, secure in the knowledge that someone will say “don’t worry about, I’ll pay for the rest”
Regardless of the reasons why, today’s little shopping trip is one of those things I will remember when she grows up and becomes and adult. We’ll wax poetic over the “remember when” moments of today, adding them to when we helped shop for my sister-in-law’s wedding dress, my niece’s quinceañera dress, my outfit for my first TV appearance.
Pray for the poor sales clerks. There are a lot of us, all trying to help one teenager pick a dress.
* * *
Photos courtesy of
- lizfranceli / Pixabay
