Will Work for Pants

My 14-year-old daughter has decided recently that she wants to be a “Goth”. A couple of months ago, she talked me into buying her black gloves that extend to her elbows and are covered with silver buckles and grommets and things. At the time, she swore she would only wear them occasionally – though I think it would be closer to the truth to say that she *only* takes them off to shower.

In addition to the gloves, she has taken to wearing black t-shirts and painting her fingernails black. She’s chomping at the bit to dye her hair black, as well. I told her that her skin is too pale to have black hair, which she has interpreted to mean that if she gets a suntan, she can dye her hair. Not quite what I said…

Today while we were at the mall shopping for baby shower gifts, she dragged me into her new favorite store, Hot Topic (otherwise known as Goths R Us). She now wants me to buy her some pants similar to the ones pictured above. I think the actual pants that she showed me had more chains and dangly things, though. Ugh. While in the store we had a little argument when she expected that because she wanted the pants, I would simply pony up the money and buy them for her. If I actually *liked* the pants, that might have been the case (sue me!), but as I am not really all that fond of the “wear black and look like a vampire all the time” look, I really can’t bring myself to make it easy for her. I explained to her that I had a lot of upcoming financial obligations over the next couple of months (at least THREE baby showers, a vacation to Florida in less than 2 weeks, and I’m in my sister’s wedding in April), and that if she wanted the pants, she was going to have to do some chores around the house (she currently does…um…none), earn an allowance, and buy them herself. She wasn’t particularly happy to hear that, as you can imagine. When we got home, she went straight into her bedroom, and I didn’t hear much out of her for the next few hours…

Approximately 2 hours ago, I heard words come from my daughter’s mouth that I have never heard before in all of her 14 1/2 years: “Mom, I cleaned my room. Come see!” Shortly after that, I saw her walking around the house with a trash bag in her hand, emptying all of the trashcans in the bedrooms and bathrooms. Apparently she has taken my words to heart and has decided to work for the ugly goth pants. I guess at some point in the future I’m going to have to take her to the mall and let her buy them. My only consolation is that seeing her in them will probably give her father (my ex-husband) a stroke. Maybe I’ll let her dye her hair black too….

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