PAYING FOR TORTURE pt. 2

Jean 2 here summing up pt. 2 of my example of PAYING FOR TORTURE! Dress shopping with my teenage daughter J for the winter formal. Oh. my. goodness. Long story short. It was a bad day for me and not so great for her. I always invisioned me being a great shopping buddy to my daughter. And for the most part-I am. We love the mall. We go and have Starbucks (she has the vanilla bean cream based frappucino-no coffee I assure you) and walk around happily looking at our leisure. However, when we have an actual mission-things change. The problem was my expectations vs. her expectations. I was thinking this might take about two hours and I was more than ready to deal with that. But then two hours turns into five hours and we have been in EVERY SINGLE STORE THAT SELLS A DRESS twice! And still NO dress. I was losing it. My DH was there to TRY to keep me calm. My daughter J was near tears because she had YET to find the PERFECT dress. Oldest step daughter was a big help. She kept showing J dresses and was trying to get her to make a decision so I didn't lose it. We were actually in Dillards for over an hour with J in the dressing room and I was taking her every dress in her size. Still nothing. Finally it happened-the DRESS-the one. Higher priced than what I planned on paying but at that point-I had to salvage my maternal instincts and just buy it. It isn't a matter of money with J. It is simply principal. My daughter rarely is told no and her dad and I try very hard to make her happy. She is his only child and my only bio child. We can afford to buy her nice things so we do. And she is happy. She isn't the typical spoiled child. She gets good grades and she is sweet and sensitive. But I did notice that when she doesn't get her way or see something that she wants she tends to get upset. She is not good in a minor crisis. Time to start teaching her to deal with reality. And that is basically what I said on Saturday. As moms, we make many mistakes. Looking back, I wish I could go back and handle the situation better. Be there for her without making her feel worse. She was more worried about me gettting upset and couldn't concentrate on her agenda. All is well now but I did PAY FOR MORE TORTURE. And the dress is beautiful and she looks simply fabulous in it. Too much so if you ask me!:)