Sunday, February 21, 2010

not so girly

Erin needed some new sneakers. At the shoe store she chose some pretty conventional (for her) white with pink sparkly accents New Balance tennies. So, fine. Mission accomplished. Then she saw the assortment of more retro canvas shoes over to one side.
"They have Chuck Taylors! Can I get some?"
Once and a while my girls surprise me.

Erin knows Chuck Taylors because she's already had two pairs, the more recent of which was still her in closet, though they didn't fit her anymore. Her first pair was spotted by her in a store about a year and a half ago. She saw them, she wanted them. My girly, girly, girly girl, who draws nothing but butterflies and hearts and rainbows and ponies and shining happy people holding hands, who loves dresses and bows and glitter and magic wands and plastic high heel shoes for playing dress up, wanted some rather boyish plain Chuck Taylors.

If I had wanted Chuck Taylors as a kid my mom's head would have exploded, because it nearly did with all clothing I picked out. I never liked what she wanted me to like. I was the anti-pink/sparkly/hearts/rainbows/princess/anything girly girl, much to her frustration. Unlike nearly everything they pick out in a store to wear, Chuck Taylors would have been right up my alley. I very happily bought them for Erin.

"They come in pink," I advised her, guessing this would surely be the color of choice.
"I want BLACK," she answered, "or maybe dark brown."
"Dark brown?"
"OH! They have dark blue! THAT'S the pair I want!"

So dark blue it was, and she wore those things into the ground. Her second pair was dark blue too, and so was her choice for her newest acquisition. When we got home I inspected the pair in her closet and decided they had a lot more wear left in them and they would fit Allison now. But I didn't think Allison, who is as much a fan of all things uber-girly as Erin is, would agree to wear them. Wow, was I wrong. She was THRILLED to realize these could be hers and she's been wearing them nonstop ever since.


And fortunately for my mom, she finally has some girls to shop for who will actually wear the girly things she picks out for them.

1 comment:

lisa said...

Sounds like the "girly thing" skips a generation.