Did you realize how cold it is before you got dressed???

So this is kind of a follow up to my post on the kids clothes.  We were at DD's early soccer game on Saturday morning when the hubs leans over and says "Did you just see that lady walk by?" Of course, I didn't because I was watching the game while trying to stay warm.  He tells me to look over to the next field.  Low and behold, there is a mom walking in for her child's game wearing one of the off the shoulder tops.  Seriously?????  Did you not realize that it is 40 degrees outside and that is before the wind chill.  No one cares how great you look at a kids soccer game.  Especially one that is in the freezing cold.  On top of that, she had 3 kids with her and not a one had a coat on them.  I know people don't watch the news anymore for the most part but it only takes a quick trip out the door to know that everyone needs coats and appropriate clothing, if not for yourself, for your children.

This is my rant from Saturday.  Just now getting to post it.  Busy, busy!!!

What has happened to girl's clothing????

1st off - I have to say thanks to all that have read my blog so far.  Some have wondered where the anger comes from.  Remember the over the top is in humor.  Yes I have anger issues.  It's who I am.  99% of the time I'm as fun loving as they come.  The other 1%, watch out.  To the ones that have told me how it has brighten their day and when is the next one coming, thank you so much!  I was told as a Sophomore in HS by my English teacher that I couldn't write.  Now as a perfectionist, one of the top in the class, failure is not an option, this made me stop writing creatively and second guess everything I ever wrote again.  I never wrote much to begin with but that made writing about the last thing I wanted to do.  So the fact that I actually have done this after graduating HS some 25 years ago, is amazing.  If you had told me then, I would have a blog and enjoy it - I would have laughed.

Now on to my post for today!

Have any of you ever noticed that there does not seem to be good clothing options once you get past the Gymboree clothes????  You might wonder why this is bothering me today.  Well, I know that my days are numbered shopping at Gymboree for DD.  Just got a shipment yesterday after using my Gymbucks and loved all of it.  And so did she.  But I have noticed that once you move to 1st grade, something strange happens.  Girls are no longer satisfied (or maybe their moms???) with what Gymboree has to offer (I'm using Gymboree but could be any of the others like Children's Place, etc).  They want to shop at Justice or something similar (I only know of Justice because that is the one I hear about the most).  Now I will admit, I have not shopped at Justice in a long time.  Since it changed from Limited 2 to Justice is how long.  My oldest niece is a Sophomore in college and I was the cool aunt before kids so I bought a lot of clothes for niece #1 & #2 and was drug into Limited 2 a lot.

Unfortunately, somewhere along the way, Justice seems to have gotten lost with their fashion if you can call it that.  There is no reason a young girl in 1st or 2nd grade (or any grade within grade school) needs to go to school looking like she is a member of FAME or just stepped off a Flashdance remake.  (Yes I'm showing my age but that was my best example).  I have seen more off the shoulder tops, tops that have no seams at the just pieces of fabric holding them together, etc to last a lifetime on young girls.  I know before this it was the short short tops that were popular.  80's are cool right now so why bring the slutty look back and not the preppy look.  Girls today are thrown into an oversexed world that they have to be sexy pre-puberty .  I don't know about you but I don't want my daughter looking like that.  And have you seen where this leads to after grade school.  After seeing so many of my friends kids Homecoming pictures over the past few weeks on Facebook, the dresses keep getting shorter and shorter for teens.  It is obscene how short these skirts are.  And if you are tall, forget it.  It is even harder to find a skirt that is a reasonable length.  And to top it all off, you have to wear hooker heels.  If I had even thought I was going to walk out of the house looking like that, my mom and dad would have barred the door and had an intervention.  Actually, the clothes would never have made it into the house.

Now what can we do to help stop this?  Make smart purchases and try to stand up to the trend.  I know that not all of Justice's clothes look like what I described above because I've seen them.  We as parents, need to only purchase items that are appropriate for the age group.  Resist the urge to let  the kids dictate what they are going to wear.  My kids are very independent.  But I learned from a great parenting class that you have to give them 2 options.  That would be 2 options YOU can live with so they are making a choice but an informed one.   This teaches them to make decisions but you provide them with reasonable choices.  Also, watch what your kids are watching on TV.  We limit the tween shows at this house.  No reason we need to grow up sooner than we have to but some of these shows seem to promote these clothing trends.

Ok.  Off that soapbox for the day.  Again, remember these are my opinions.  Just getting my latest thing that made me go "Seriously???" off the chest.  I'm sure tomorrow, I'll have some observations of stupid people to report.  :)

Why do people do the things they do????

So this is my first post.  Can't promise how great it will be but here we go.

I swear stupid people swarm me.  Not sure what I have done to deserve this privilege but it is my cross to bear.  It is so bad that my kids yell at me about naughty words in the car - "STUPID" & "MORON".  Of course, when my DH drives with them, they tell on me.  He honked at someone one time and from the back seat came "Stupid driver". Of course, that led to an intervention with my supposed anger issues while driving.  Don't people know that driving is a race and we must all win????  If not, get out of my way.   (Yes I'm holding back what I might add that are truly naughty words but with the possibility that my mother might read this, I must keep it clean.

So observations from today during the few short minutes I was out taking the kiddos to school and get my Starbucks fix.

• If you know one of the kids helping opening the car doors as you pull up in the car pool lane, you don't stop immediately and let your kids out there.  This is especially the case when they are at the end of the line and you are supposed to be at the front of the line.  MAJOR BACKUP ensues and makes MOMS who have not had their STARBUCKS yet, very CRANKY!!!!  Yes it was a dad.  Observation is dads break the carpool lane rules the most.   Guess they are not getting the notes that are being sent home from the Principal nor the teachers.   Note to wives - ADD THEM TO THE E-MAIL DISTRIBUTION LISTS!!!!  
• If you have an SUV or Minivan, (yes I know that is most of the moms in South JOCO) learn the turn radius.  You don't need to take up the in and out lane up at Starbucks.  I have an SUV.  It has a sharper turning radius than our sedan does.  If you can't figure this out, maybe the drive-thru is not your option.  Yes I know this will mean you will have to get dressed before you do drop off but you won't cause a cluster of the people trying to get in and out through the only lane available.
• Your SUV or Minivan also has no front end to it.  It doesn't stick out 6 ft so yes you can get closer than 10 ft than the next car.  This makes the order taking go much smoother and helps keep the line from backing up needlessly further.  
• Turning right from the left hand lane out into traffic is not advised.  There are clearly 3 lanes coming into the strip mall area where Starbucks is located.   One in, left turn out, and right turn out.  I know it is not mark but it doesn't take a brain scientist to see that there are 3 large pieces of concrete that hmmm let's guess this one - oh I bet you can - Yep, the SIZE of a vehicle.  So that makes it logical (oh wait, that would assume these people are smart) that you would follow that method.  Don't turn right out of the left one or take up half its space.  Holds that line up and sometimes it is a B%^!* turning left out.  (OK already broke my first rule of no naughty words so I used symbols!)

Ok.  That is all for now.  Off to field trip with DS.  It is at Deanna Rose.  I HATE Deanna Rose.  Pray for me.

Update after field trip - Deanna Rose was not bad.  We did the historical tour and have to say it was my most enjoyable trip to there.  Usually I have my DD climbing up my legs back into the womb because she is scared of every animal that is moving.  Since she was happily at Kindergarten and we didn't even go to that part of the farmstead, it was okay.  Kindergarten pick up NOT SO MUCH!  We all received the nicely worded e-mail yesterday after it was a cluster so one would think it would be good to go today.  Nope.   Mom/Grandma not sure which out of the car so she can get baby girl all in and kissed.  Daycare bus in the normal carpool lane and not the one reserved for Daycare buses.  Can't say what happened behind me that was all in front of me.  I know one of the offenders from yesterday was behind me.  Purposely sped up so I could turn in before she did so I wouldn't be stuck again today.  Another one that must get out and get their baby girl all kissed and buckled in.

Will try my best not to let any more stupid people get to me today but not promising anything.