The Boys’ First Self-Chosen Clothing Purchase

So, for the past 5.5 years I’ve been picking out and purchasing the boys’ clothes. The only thing that they have ever cared about, where clothing is concerned, is their life-long desire to wear matching outfits. If it were up to them they’d dress identically 100% of the time (and to this day they put up quite a fight to be able to dress as identically as they can get away with… right down to their underpants and socks). They have always been that way about dressing the same. But as far as actual clothing goes– styles, types, brands, colors, fabrics, fashions, etc…  Never once, ever, have they asserted themselves with any kind of refusal to wear anything I’ve ever bought for them. With only one exception they also have never shown any strong preference for any item of clothing in their entire wardrobes. That one exception was that Kyle, from about age 18 months to about 2 years old, had a favorite shirt — a brown shirt with a motorcycle on it — that he would sometimes find in his closet and communicate very clearly to us that he wanted to wear (soon enough he grew out of the shirt and that was the end of that). They do like their Red Sox clothing– and will often put it on when they are going outside to play baseball (especially when MorFar is with us), but really— all across the board– they really have never shown any kind of care in the world about any stitch of clothing on their bodies or in their closet. {their sister, on the other hand, is quite a different story} Anyway… so…. last Friday I had to run an errand at Target and had to take all three kids with me. I avoid this at all costs and will do just about anything to get out of having to bring all three of them into a store with me– But, I ventured forth with the three of them in tow. While walking past the boys’ clothing section Kyle spotted some athletic-type ‘Champion’ brand boys’ shorts on a rack. “Ooooh!” he said, pointing them out to me with huge eyes, “Those are the kind of shorts all the guys wear!” “What guys?” I asked him. “The Lehigh guys!” he said, excitedly pointing them out to Owen. Owen’s eyes just about popped out of his head. And then, for the first time ever in their lives, they asked me to buy them an article of clothing. Right there in the midst of Target my soon-to-turn-six-year-old boys asked me if I’d buy them the shorts. They do need shorts (lots of them!) for summer, so I was more than happy to go along with it and buy them. As we sifted through the rack to find two identical pair in their size (of course they insisted on both getting the same exact ones even though I tried to talk them into at least getting different colors), they got distracted by a rack of matching ‘Champion’ tank-top shirts nearby. Now, I’ve never bought them tank-tops. I don’t want to offend anyone who might be reading, and we all have our own tastes and preferences, but suffice it to say that I do not care for tank tops on boys/men. Never in my life did I think I’d ever purchase a tank top for my son… let alone two tank tops for two sons. But they were darn near drooling over these shirts that were “JUST LIKE ZAHIR AND MARQUIS WEAR!!!!!!!!!!!” And again, not to over-emphasize it or anything, but, they have never shown any interest whatsoever in clothing of any kind. So, I bought them the shorts and the shirts. And they could not have been happier about it. They’d wear these outfits every day if they could. And I must admit that (although I never would have picked them out on my own) these outfits look really really good on them!