What will negative sizes do for positive esteem?
Carson is 1 year old now, but I still have to hold my breath to zip some of my pre-pregnant Size 9 jeans.
So, imagine my delight last weekend when bought a Size 6. I was elated. I haven't been Size 6 since... ever, actually.
I recall sometime in the sixth grade graduating from a girls' Size 12 slim to a women's Size 7/8. Considering I can no longer get into my Size 9/10 wedding dress, a Size 6 is a foreign number in my closet.
I knew better, but I wanted to believe it. I smiled at my reflection in the dressing room mirror, and I smiled all the way to the cash register.
I'm not stupid and neither are most other female consumers, but it feels good - in a sneaky way - to have the deceptive tag on my waistband.
Designers and manufacturers obviously know this, too, and theyÕre no doubt smiling all the way to the bank.
They've figured out that happier women and women with positive self-esteem are more likely to spend money on themselves, and they're likely to spend it on the one thing that's making them smile - the tag with the tiny number on it.
It's brilliant marketing.
The only problem is what size will the real Size 3 women wear?
For the first time in my life, I shuffled through the racks last weekend and came across Size 0 clothes.
If this marketing trend gets out of hand, some of our truly skinny Size 1 women will become less than nothing - a negative figure. I wonder what that will do to self esteem.
Keep it simple when vacationing with kids
We enjoyed a little family vacation to the Twin Cities last week.
I had carefully planned an itinerary full of interesting things to do and see in between the major attractions.
We would have breakfast in the rotating Carousel Restaurant atop a St. Paul sky scraper. We would float up and down the Mississippi River on the historic Paddleford riverboat. We would take in live evening music at the Como Park and Pavilion. And, if we needed something else to do, we would bicycle around the Uptown lakes (I even researched which bike rental places accommodated baby passengers).
These would be sandwiched between stops at the St. Paul ChildrenÕs Museum, Science Museum and Omni Theater, Minnesota Zoo and, of course, the Mall of America, which offered Camp Snoopy and Underwater Adventures.
Alas, in all my planning, I forgot who was actually going on this vacation - children with simple, childlike interests.
We took in the major attractions and Jonathan, 6, loved them, but we had to get him and his baby brother out of the hotel first.
Jonathan begged to ride up and down the escalators several times each time we arrived and departed the lobby, and he was happy to swim in the hotel pool every day until his skin wrinkled to a prune-like texture.
Carson, who has just mastered walking, was thrilled to toddle up and down the endless hotel corridors, unobstructed by usual household clutter.
We had a wonderful time, minus the extraneous points of interest.
For the next family vacation, we'll check into the nearest hotel with a pool, escalator and long hallways.