Oh man .. I am NOT looking forward to that age! SD's are 4 and 6 now, so they get little say in the clothes we pick out for them.

Sorry your weekend sucked

You had no clue this was going to happen? If so why were you there - just a slip of judgement?

Problem #1 - taking the kid to pick out what they get...I don't know, but when I was growing up my mother didn't take us to pick and choose...she bought us the stuff SHE WANTED and brought it home...we could either wear it or complain about it...and well, still had to wear it...lol

I do feel that parents give WAY TOO MUCH to kids nowadays. My son is 11...I might take him shopping but wether he likes something or not, I approve it first...he gets to PICK something from the 4 shirts I picked out...it's not the other way around. Yes, sometimes he will say "I don't like any of it" and my response is very nicely "that was NOT one of the options...you can either pick ONE OF THESE or I can pick it for you...THOSE are your options". And heck, my kiddo is autistic, ADHD, ODD, etc...which means he can test your patience...but this is never a big deal to us.

Parents need to stop giving so many rights to pick and choose to kids. Then they wonder why the kids are 16 and feel entitled or think they get to make decisions.

I love shopping with my kiddos as well. I've got dd14, dd10, and ds13. Out of all of them my ds13 is the hardest to please. However, as I've gotten to know his tastes we can usually meet in the middle but I do still try to buy him things I think look nice so that he will wear them at least occassionally. However, Ive never experienced a time in the mall like that with anyone. I just would never purchase something I found unacceptable and if they needed some shirts and couldnt choose I would just go ahead and pick some for them.

I dont really shop with my ss14. My dh has taken him shopping to buy shoes and indicated that it was nightmarish. I think part of the problem is he wants insanely expensive stuff and while we are willing to buy nice name brand stuff, we arent willing to spend 100.00 on his tennis shoes. So since that offer is not on the table he hems and haws around for hours because those are really the only ones he truly wants. Since Im not willing to put up with it the last pair of shoes we bought for him, were bought by ME, without dh or ss present. I asked him what color, what brand and I went and got them (for 20.00 by the way at the outlet store!) and they ended up being exactly to the letter the pair of shoes he asked for (he had identified another kids shoes as being the ones he wanted-my dd was with me and she was able to pick out the exact shoes). Of course when I got home with them, he acted ok with them, but then had my idiotic mil by him a new pair six weeks later. The issue with my ss14 essentially is just that he is never really happy with anything. It doesnt matter what it is -because in his eyes its always not as good as what someone else has, we are always trying to give him the short end of the stick, and he's too busy feeling sorry for himself to ever truly enjoy anything.

It's funny to me because my DH and I crack up about kids who want/expect designer/with a big logo clothing/shoes. The fact is that the people who buy that kind of stuff are usually at the lower end of the social ladder...It's hilarious to see someone with brand name clothes/shoes and logos all over them, as instead of looking "elegant or high class", they look like low class people.

PS - we do buy some nice clothes for our son, NONE of which have any brand name crap printed on them...same with shoes.