Shopping With Tweens

My eleven year old loves to shop but hates to try on clothing.  When I say "hates", I mean that in the strongest sense.  It's a constant battle between us. For this reason I tend to do a lot of shopping for her either online at sites which have local stores to facilitate returns (much better size selection online) or I go out by myself during school time to stores such as Ross, Marshall's, TJ Maxx, etc.  I've found it's just so much easier to have her try things on at home and return what she doesn't like or doesn't fit.  (In most Momworlds this would be the harder of the two options but trust me when I say, it makes my life easier.)

Because her middle school has recently cracked down on the "no rips/no tears/no almost tears/no wannabe tears" dress code she has very little in the way of denim that works.  (Mind you, she has tons of colored bottoms that fit the dress code but my "I hate denim" elementary school child has matured into a "I'll only wear denim" middle schooler.  grrrr....)  In the past month I've made several shopping trips and online orders which resulted in dozens of very nice jeans, long denim shorts as well as denim capris but for one tween reason or another, they all had to be returned.  And yes, I mean NICE and yes, I mean ALL.  Because I will only wash her denim's on the weekends (with her PE clothes) I was at my wit's end with her.

Last night after dropping her off at gymnastics I decided to wander into Beall's Outlet which is in the same shopping center.  Now mind you, I'd place Beall's right above KMart (which I consider a notch above WMart) and slighty below Target in a quality/designer pyramid but their outlets do occasionally get in merchandise from other non-Beall's stores so every once in a great while you can find a few nicer items.  I left last night with four pairs of assorted denims for Meg and two shirts for myself.    She reviewed her denims, decided they were "worthy of trying on" and guess what????  All fit, all looked cute, and with the exception of a pair of black denim shorts, which I will return next week, she loved them.  Score!  She even left for school this morning in one pair of knee length cuffed denim shorts...so I know she likes them.  On a sad note, she decided that one of my new shirts looked way cuter on her so my new shirt count went down by one.  LOL!  Such is life with Meg.

So...forget Aeropostle, Hollister, American Eagle Outfitters, etc.  Check out your local Beall's Outlet.  LOL!!!