Zippers or lack of same

Something came to mind when I was doing laundry the other night.

I am one of those who goes through all the pockets twice and then pulls up all the zippers and buttons all the buttons before tossing stuff into the washer. As I was doing so, I noticed that all the zippers on my pants were full length and the ones on The Diva's pants were maybe 2-3" long, even on the junior sizes!!! I dawned on me that I hadn't worn pants with such tiny zippers since I was in high school and hip-hugger elephant bells were in style. FYI: yes, I did own a few pairs of those AND I WAS CUTE!!!

Earlier in the day, The Diva pretended to gag when I threatened to make her wear jeans like mine because that was the day I had on a pair of cringe-worthy elastic-waist jeans. (They were the only ones I could find--hence doing the laundry). She screamed "NO WAY!!" and accused me of wearing GRANNY jeans! Well, I do own a few pairs of those, I guess and I get lazy sometimes. There are days when I just am not up to dressing for the cuter Izod or Levi's that I own but I have never been accused of wearing "granny pants" before. I admit that I have caught hell for the "mom" jeans at times, but never the others.

Those tiny zippers made me nervous because the pants aren't Britney Spears show-it-all low, but they do ride below the waist about an inch. They also reminded me that Ms. Thang is less than a year to official teenager status. The clothes are changing subtly and it is sad in a way. I look at the cute little baby and toddler outfits and wish I could buy them again. I already know that even the more stylish outfits in the older girls' department no longer pass muster. She heads straight for the juniors department now, coming back with what can only be called "hoochie" clothes because that is all that seems to be sold in that area. Depressing...

Of course, it didn't help that we used the free kid's birthday coupon yesterday for dinner at Sweet Tomatos. That was her last "little kid" freebie. WAHHHH!