To Put Off from Time to Time? .. You Bet!
They call it procrastination. I have been guilty of procrastination on many occasions, but never quite so severely than in the past couple of weeks. We are all aware that school is about to begin. The beginning of school means shop- ping for school clothes. I have been dreading taking “Clark” shopping for school clothes for the past few weeks, therefore I have been procrastinating. It has been past experiences that have made me gun shy. I know just the mention of going to the clothing department in a department store will be met with a long face and the questions…“How long will it take?’ and “Will we be home in thirty minutes to watch the transformers? I have had a lot of experience with taking girls shopping and now at my mature age. I have to go through taking a boy shopping. Believe me it is a whole different ballgame. Most girls like nice clothes and like to shop for them, boys on the other hand like nice clothes but don’t want to be bothered with what they think is unnecessary shopping.
One of the most serious problems with taking “Clark” shopping is…he is not a perfect (size) “10”. “Clark” is built like a lineman for the Broncos. And as any mother that has a boy that is built as big as a football player or as lanky as a basketball player will tell you, they make clothes for the kids that are the same size as described on the charts hanging in the doctor’s office.
Monday was our big day. I finally got up enough nerve to do what I have been dreading for the past couple of weeks…take the kid shopping for his new school clothes. I must admit, I was not in the best of moods after about fifteen minutes inside the store. In fact. I think you could describe my mood as, “ready to kill.” He did not like anything that I liked. He wanted pants with a belt, and with “Clark’s” waistline he has to have pants with elastic. He did not like the plain or striped shirts, he wanted shirts with Masters of the Universe and Optimus Prime on the front. He did not like the grey socks, he wanted white socks so they could be beige on the bottom in a couple of months from wearing them outside without shoes.
Inside the hot dressing room was another story. Standing in a three by three dressing room, trying clothes on a kid that doesn’t want to try on clothes is aggravating…to say the least. You can not bend over without bumping your fanny on one wall or the other. And all the while “Clark” is worried that the drape over the door is open and someone will see him. What he did not realize was that nobody I could see him inside the dressing room, I was taking up the whole thing. All the pants that fit him around the waist were at least eight inches too long and he refused to believe that I could hem them to flt. After I finally convinced him that they could be hemmed, he had to think of something else to aggravate me. This is a kids way of getting out of something they don’t like, they make you so miserable that you finally say, “OK that’s it! I’m tired of this let’s go home.” With little thought he said to me, don’t like these pants, they have a zipper in the front of them.” Now I have been out in public for a couple of years and for the life of me I thought that boys pants normally do have a zipper in the front of them…but I suppose, only being a mother, I could be wrong. As we were leaving the store he was complaining about being so tired that he could hardly carry the sack with his socks in it because it was so heavy. But the minute we got out of the store and into the mall, he had a miraculous recovery. He recovered so completely that he was willing to carry a big old sack of toys to the car if I would just happen to stop into the toy store and buy them for him.
Now do you see why I have been guilty of procrastination in the past couple of weeks? I would rather climb Longs Peak in the dead of winter while wearing a bikini, than take this kid clothes shopping. I just wonder.. If Denver Bronco linebacker Randy Gradishar’s mother had these same problems?
