Peace? Or not so much...

Having two girls, I spend a huge amount of my time shopping for back to school clothes.

I look for things that are age appropriate--not always easy to do.

Cover their bodies--I call it in the arm test, they have to be able to lift their arms and not bare their entire body.

Jeans don't need to be cut so low that I got a flash of crack every time.

They need to fit well, be comfortable, and hopefully priced reasonably.

The one trend that I don't get, is this.....

or 

Those were from Justice 4 girls, but don't worry, it's everywhere, like at the Children's Place, where I can usually find cute clothes for Junior and Abs.

You get the picture.  I totally get the whole "retro look", but I guess what I can't get over is that at one time the peace symbol stood for being "anti-war", and our family isn't anti-war.  We're getting ready to ship Gunner off again to Afghanistan, and I just can't get on board with this trend.

I'm probably just overreacting, and maybe people don't view the peace symbol in the same light that I do.  

But, my kids won't be wearing them to school this fall.

It's started....

Em is 10. Since she is growing like a weed and needed new clothes I thought we would run by Ross and see if we could find anything that we agreed upon that was on clearance. I HATE paying full price for anything.

We searched through the racks and as I would pull out something that was cute, tasteful and within our price range, Em would turn her nose up at it. Em on the other hand would pull out something that was not. My daughter is not going to wear a shirt that says "baby girl". She is not going to wear something that shows her tummy. And the nerve of me, she is not going to wear anything that says anything about how looks are more important than smarts, about how you must be dumb, I am better looking than you, I am cool, the list goes on and on and on. We never even found anything for her to take to the dressing room.

Gone are the days where I can choose her clothing and she will be happy. I am apparently not cool and do not have a good sense of fashion according to my pre-teen daughter. Thankfully she knows better than to pull out anything that does not cover her body parts! We call it the arm test--they have to raise their hands above their head and I don't want to see any belly buttons. Is that too much to ask?

I used to love Gymboree because we could always find something tasteful there. She's too big now. We looked online last night and agreed on absolutely nothing at almost every store. Surely there is a store out there that sells clothing for girls that is made for girls and not sex symbols?

On a side note, I checked Em's tennis shoes last night and the 7.5 women's size is not going to fit by summer. I think I was in high school or college before my feet were that big!