What Not to Wear

Do you ever see those families, you know you have, that are all wearing matching outfits? The dad and sons have polo shirts in the exact same color as the hand-sewn dresses that the mom and the girls are wearing? And you think "what the heck are those people smoking?", right?


No?


Well, off you go then.


The boys are fairly close in age, and sometimes when they were little, out of sheer coincidence (I blame the perpetual "fog" that I was in for their first 3 years) I would find the three of us wandering the grocery store wearing almost identical clothing. Oh, the horror! I would look down at them, riding so nicely in the "beep beep car" cart, and see that I'd dressed each in denim with a red shirt. Then, I'd catch a glimpse of myself in the shiny glass of the dairy case and see that I was wearing denim and a red shirt too. At which point I would run as fast as I could from the store to avoid running into anyone I knew (which always happens when you either go to the store in your pyjamas or with matching kids - don't ask me how I know that).


I tried like crazy to avoid doing this (except for the intentional matching done in the annual Christmas card photo of course) and by the time they were 5 & 6-years-old, I can honestly say that it happened less than once a month. And that's pretty good.


I thought I'd never have to face trouble like this again, now that the boys dress themselves for the most part. That, and I am not a big fan of "Hurley" t-shirts for myself. Then Katie came along.


The other morning, in a rare moment of weakness, she was allowing me to pick out her clothes for her (probably to make up for throwing her shoe at me on the way home from yoga class - but that is another story). Anyhow, with the weather being in that in-between stage of not hot enough for shorts but not cool enough for long sleeves, we (the both of us) have been wearing capris. So, I grabbed a cute pair of capris from her closet and a turquoise t-shirt and told her to get dressed.


I then went into my closet to ponder the designer labels - Gucci, Prada, Dolce & Gabbana . . . whoops! Mental drift there, I apologize. Well, I went into my room to get myself dressed (because I am a big girl and can do that).


What did I choose?


A pair of chino crops and a turquoise t-shirt.


I asked Katie if she was dressed and ready, for we were expecting lunch guests.


She marched into my room, proud that she was dressed and took one look at me.


"Look Mommy, we match!"



Oh no, here we go again . . .