Shopping With a 15 Year Old Teenager

"Lindsay, are you ready for shopping? Donna patiently waited for her daughter to answer. "Lindsay, do you hear me?"

Peering down the staircase, a half-dressed Lindsay appeared. "Geez, Mom, chill out! Can't you see I'm on the phone right now?"

"Actually, no. I can't see through the floor. Get a move on or we're not going at all!"

Rolling her eyes, Lindsay gave an exasperated sigh. "I'll have to call you back Stacy, Mom's having a hissy fit right now."

Donna sat at the kitchen table with a cup of coffee waiting.

"I'm ready." A sarcastic Lindsay stood before her in a yellow crop top underneath a flannel shirt; her feet donned in high-top tennis shoes. "Can we bring Stacy with us? She hasn't been to the new mall yet either."

"I suppose but you should have asked her to stay last night. Now we will have to run all the way across town to pick her up."

"Stop stressing Mom, it's not that big of a deal is it?"

Donna sucked in her breath. "No, I guess not."

Finally on the road the girls were busy on the phone most of the way.

"OMG," Stacy screamed when they pulled into the parking lot. "Look at the size of this mall!"

They jumped out of the car and were through the front entrance before Donna had even locked the car door. "Hold up girls," was almost out of her mouth when she realized it was too late. Now they would be off and she'd never find them. Shame on her for giving Lindsay the money ahead of time.

It would be useless to try and find the girls in the three-storied complex. She decided to rely on her phone for updates from them. Maybe she should have brought a friend along for company. It didn't appear as though she would be bonding with her daughter today nor have any input whatsoever about what was purchased.

Feeling left out she wandered along looking in windows but not finding anything she wanted. Spotting a circle of chairs she decided to sit for a while and 'people watch'. Closing her eyes for a moment she could hear the clip-clop of heels on the highly glossed shiny floor. Funny what people wear when out shopping. Was it to impress others or did they always dress like that? Not for her, she would rather be comfortable.

A frazzled woman dragging an angry looking young boy and pushing a stroller passed by. She heard the woman speak to the boy. "William, if you could please pick up your feet instead of shuffling along we will be done sooner and can get some ice cream."

Now an old couple, hunched over and walking slowly, strolled by holding hands. She wondered if she and Donald would still hold hands when they aged; it was nice to see.

She took out her Kindle and began reading a downloaded book. Time flew by and before she knew it, the phone rang and it was Lindsay.
"Hello."

"Mother, for heaven's sake, where are you? Stacy and I are hungry, can we get lunch somewhere?"

"If you hadn't run off like you did I would have suggested we do just that. How did you expect me to find you?"

"You could have called. Seriously, can we go to Chili's for lunch?"

"OK, I'll meet you. Where is it?"

"On the 3rd floor, we'll go in and get a seat." Then plunk, the phone hung up.

Donna stared at her phone for a minute irritated at the hang-up.

Lindsay smiled when Donna entered, pleased with her day of shopping. "Hi Mom, are you having fun? Wait til' you see all the stuff we got."

"That's nice dear, are you almost done shopping?"

"Oh no! We haven't even seen some of the stores yet." The girls laughed.

"I see, well we'll have to put a time limit on the day, say 4:00? I'll meet you in front of the Asian Nail Salon then."

The meal was great and Donna had to admit she enjoyed the excitement of the girls talking when they were not on their phones. It seemed every little happenstance had to be discussed with their various phone buddies down to the choices of food.

"Thank you Mrs. Wilson for lunch," smiled Stacy.

"Yup, thanks Mom."

"You're very welcome girls, now don't forget, 4:00, no later."

"Mom, can you take our bags with you so we don't have to drag them around?"

Donna gritted her teeth. "Sure, why not."

Laden with the purchases she slowly made her way back down to the 1st floor after re-arranging her arms several times along the way. When back in a seat she realized she could have taken an elevator and bypassed the two floors of escalators. She resisted the urge to peek into the bags and see what had been purchased.

Miraculously, at 3:00 the girls appeared looking as worn out as she herself felt.

"We're ready to go home, our feet are killing us."

On the way home, now feeling relaxed but weary, Donna suggested that Stacy call her Mom and see if she could spend the night. "We can order pizza and have a fashion show after so that I can see what you both bought."

The evening was delightful and the girls actually put their phones to rest. After dinner everyone moved to the living room where the fashion show began. The girls strutted as if on a runway, laughing at themselves. I was impressed thinking what good choices they had made. Why they really didn't need me to make decisions after all.

Later that evening the girls came downstairs.

"I love you Mom. Thank you for taking us to the mall and for lunch. We had the best time ever."

"Yes, thank you Mrs. Wilson You're the greatest!"

Sometimes the little things that have annoyed us in the day are forgotten with a simple 'thank you' or 'I love you'.

999 Words
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