Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Shopping for Homecoming Dresses

A few weeks ago, Beth and Tim went to the mall. Beth said she needed a Homecoming dress, so her dad said she could look for one, and told her how much she could spend. We, her parents, did not go with them. She was on her own to choose a dress.

The dress she came home with was rather questionable. The poor girl is rather well endowed, and this dress really leaves little to the imagination. Overall, the dress is nice - just not that top part. She took the dress to her room. We went out of town, and I hadn't really thought about it again - until last night when she came out wearing it. She had a lace-front cami under it, and it really didn't look too bad - except for the bra and cami straps in the back. What is it with girls these days, always letting their bra straps show? I remember when that was just wrong. In fact, I still think it's wrong, but she won't listen to me. She just says, "It'll be dark in there. No one will care."

Ok, so let me get this straight. It will be dark. No one will be paying all that much attention to the dress. So why exactly did she need a new one? I must admit I don't understand the whole thing about dresses for dances. Why exactly can't you wear it again? Who's going to even notice?

Beth wasn't completely sold on wearing the cami under the new dress, or wearing it without, so she started trying on other dresses - her Homecoming dress from two years ago, a dress we bought her for the winter dance last year that she didn't wear. She ended up taking the winter formal dress, cutting it off, and hemming it. See, it wasn't appropriate for Homecoming because it was too long. I didn't complain too much about her cutting the dress off, because we did buy it at Goodwill. The hem isn't perfect, but again - it'll be dark in there. No one will actually notice, right?

So, I think that's what she's going to wear for the Homecoming dance this weekend. The irritating part? She can't take the dress she bought back to the store! Even though the tags are still on it. I guess there have been issues with girls buying dresses, wearing them to dances, and then taking them back, so some of these places don't give refunds. Her dad paid for a dress that she's probably never going to wear. Why did she buy it in the first place? She "had to have a dress, and the mall was closing." Oh, and, "The only dress I found that I really liked was $(insert price here) and I wasn't going to plunk down $(insert difference between amount daddy was willing to pay and actual cost of said dress) of my own money to pay for a dress I'm only going to wear once."

I told her not to expect daddy to plunk down any more money for any more dresses - especially ones she's never even going to wear once.