I don’t have any daughters, so the whole going-shopping-with-your-daughter thing has not been a part of my life.  This is fine, because I am not a shopper.  My Mom and I enjoy going out together, but we have always been of the same mind: need something, go find it, go home.  The only time we might linger is when we are having lunch.  We are always glad to finally get home and start our Canasta game.  I don’t know what I would do, truly, if I had a daughter and had to perhaps figure out the appeal of shopping til you drop.  I am sure I would be a big disappointment. 

Now something strange has happened.  One of my sons has graduated from college and is entering the business world and…he needs clothes.  He is now asking me to go shopping with him.  We have a date for tomorrow to hit a sale at Nordstrom.  I’m a little freaked out.  He has already made me aware of my shortcomings as a fashionista by asking me “brown shoes and belt or black shoes and belt?”  Uh…and my decision is…”sure, looks great.”  This is not helpful to him, I realize, and I finally have to commit and hope I have made the right choice.  His Dad is working out of town a lot so it is up to me to venture these split second opinions.

So tomorrow I will really be put on the spot and I’m pretty nervous – will I know what a good tie looks like?  After raising sons, anything that isn’t a t-shirt and jeans with holes makes him look like he’s ready to give a speech at the U.N.   He gets frustrated with me.  He wants an answer…an honest answer…and all I can come up with is “oh yes, it looks great!”  He knows from just looking at me that I am grasping at air for some fashion sense, and persists “no, really Mom, does this look good?”

So wish me luck.  Suddenly the idea of shopping with a daughter sounds pretty good – she would hold up an item, I would say “that’s great” at which point she would immediately deem it totally unfit for public display on her body.  Or she’d hold up a hideous outfit and the hardly discernible nauseous look on my face, honed by centuries of female evolution, would be picked up by her instinctual antennae and we would find ourselves at the register with that and three similar outfits. 

No, tomorrow I go shopping with a man.  I have to actually think.  I have to actually venture a carefully worded opinion with facts to back it up and be able to counter a challenge to that opinion with followup data.  I may have to go shopping by myself afterwards just to buy something on impulse…