If you're like me, the words back to school shopping terrifies you...especially if your children are teenagers. Back to school shopping has become more expensive than Christmas shopping. Lord, these kids act like that first week of school is like going to New York Fashion Week. Everybody is trying to outdo everybody else, so they simply must have the hottest clothes, shoes, cell phones, weaves, and everything else kids act like they have to have, these days...things that our parents didn't care two cents about buying for us. My very oldschool grandparents raised me from birth, so there wasn't really a lot of going out and buying the latest fashions to wear to school- unless you count going to consignment shops and/or garage sales to look through someone else's hand-me-down's as shopping. We got school supplies, maybe a new pair of inexpensive but functional, horribly ugly shoes (and that was only if you couldn't fit your older sibling's shoes that they had outgrown) and we were sent out the door. They truly were those parents who would say, "I'm sending you to school to learn, not to look good."
Well, times have changed, and even though I'm cheap as hell when it comes to shopping for myself, I'm so happy to be sending my kids back to school after three long months of summer, I didn't mind damn near going broke, this time. My 16 year old son and 11 (going on 30) year old daughter have spent nearly the whole summer arguing over everything from who holds the remote, to who sits on which end of the same couch (and one doesn't want the other one to touch them in any way), to trying to outdo each other in almost everything, including cartwheels and splits in my living room. My 11 year old usually won at occupying the remote, which meant we were subjected to watching the Disney Channel EVERYDAY, ALL DAY, since May. If I hear the freaking theme songs to Victorious, iCarly, and that damn Jessie one more time, I'm going to go crazier than my husband already thinks I am. My son is no better, because even though he's 16, he never got over his love of Spongebob; so whenever he managed to get his hands on the remote, this was his go-to tv show. Spongebob is the equivalent to nails on a chalkboard, and literally makes me want to kill whoever created the show and lends his or her voice to Spongebob's character. I spent most of the summer in my bedroom, trying to drown out the sounds of torture from those irritating voices.
Yep, when I look at what I've been subjected to this summer, I couldn't wait to go back to school shopping this time. I felt so good at knowing that they'll be out of my hair for about 7 hours each day, that I happily spent nearly $130.00 on a pair of sneakers for my son, alone. Normally, I would ask him if he's crazy to even think of picking up a pair of shoes that cost that much; but as the meme said, I simply smiled and said, "Sure...you can get them". I didn't even care. I think he was just as shocked to be getting those shoes as I was at telling him that he could, as he watched me happily count the money out to the cashier. It's just money...we can't take it with us, right? I just wanna break out in a happy dance, and once they get on that school bus Monday morning, I probably will. Patiently counting down the days...
#BackToSchool #Shopping
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