Fifth grade. My parents were in some kinda of financial crunch, as usual. Only this time, their crunch came right at back-to-school time. So, no back-to-school clothes for 9-year-old Stephanie! I didn’t care that much, really. My parents promised me that a few paychecks later, we’d go shopping. So I put on my favorite year-old outfit and went to school.
Only to be ridiculed for not having new clothes for the first day of school. It only took a few mean comments from the other 9 and 10-year-olds to make me very, very unhappy. It was the whole shebang – kids whispering to one another while glancing my way, and then finally shoving one girl forward to ask “Stephanie, didn’t you go back to school shopping?”
I have no idea what my response was. If I had to guess, I probably got indignant and said “NO!” I didn’t like that girl very much, anyways. She was snotty right up until high school graduation, and I haven’t seen her since, but I assume she’s still snotty.
But this stuff sticks with you. I can’t read a blog post about back-to-school shopping without thinking about the first day of fifth grade, where I got made fun of for wearing my favorite outfit, simply because it wasn’t “new.” Any thoughts on what that says about our society?
Not so much our ‘society’, per se, but rather 9/10 year olds. Kids are mean. Seriously.
True, Bri. But kids get the idea that you have to have new clothes ever year from somewhere, and it’s a combination of their parents and huge amounts of marketing. It’s now a monster that can’t be stopped.