Maggie Makes Four!

This journal started off documenting the adoption of our youngest daughter. It now follows the twist and turns of our lives as we raise these two amazing little creatures into the best women they can become.

Sunday, April 18, 2010

The Start of Something

Last week, while we were on vacation, we spent some time with one of my dearest friend's from high school and two of her daughters, aged 10 and 14. The girls enjoyed each other's company and La Nina was particularly embarrassed by her new friends' ariel cartwheels, front and back walk overs and back handsprings.

As my friend and her kids were leaving, her 10 year old asked if they could go to "Justice". I'd never heard of the place, so I asked. My friend explained it was a clothing store. La Nina immediately piped up that a couple of her friends' at school only shop there and she really needed to go too. Needless to say, a mall was not on my list of vacation hot spots, so we didn't go.

However, today was a different story. La Nina's First Communion is 3 weeks away and she needs shoes and a slip. We had to go to the mall anyway, and lo and behold we discovered our mall also has a Justice.

Justice is a store targetted for 'tweens. They only carry sizes 7 through 14. They play really loud Jonas Brothers and Miley Cyrus. Everything is neon. And a lot of it is emblazoned with something about dance or soccer. It was nirvana for La Nina, who disappeared 30 seconds after we entered the store.

Figuring she wouldn't leave this mecca of 'tweendom, the Magster and I looked around for a dress for her. We found something pretty quickly, she tried it on and was ready to go in about 5 minutes. I still hadn't seen her sister so thought I should look for her.

I found La Nina in the jewelry section. Unbeknownst to me, she had brought along her wallet and was picking out some earrings. She showed me what she had picked out, none of them were too dangly and they were actually quite tasteful considering her preferences run much more racy than mine.

She gets in line in front of me to check out, hands over the jewelry and I think I see an extra pair...but I sort of dismiss the thought. As we're walking out, she shows me some earrings on the rack. They are big hoops with lots of rainbow-colored peace signs hanging on them, certainly not something for an 8 year old. I just laugh and say "No."

We walk out of the store and she tells me she bought the earrings I just nixed with her own money and she's going to where them. A lot of thoughts went through my head in that moment, none of them remotely favorable to her position nor anything I dared utter aloud. Instead, I decided to explain a fact of life: Maternal Veto.

This rule lasts until she is 18. I don't care who buys it, how much it costs, how rare it is, how cool it is, etc. If I say No, it's no. Now I could have made her exchange the earrings on the spot, but then she'd get her money back and considering how sneaky she was, I decided that was way too nice. She needed to learn a lesson. Instead, I forced her to give the earrings to me. She tried to tell me I owned her $8, but no way. Next time, she needs to ask before she buys. I now own a lovely pair of hoop earrings covered with peace signs. I bet you're all jealous.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home