Monday, March 2, 2009

The American Dream

I was at work on Sunday at Bloomingdales and witnessed the most appalling display that I will now share with all of you because it was too great to not share.



My department is located near the UGG department in shoes and I watched this girl who was probably anywhere between 14-16 years old. She was with her little sister who was probably 9-11 and the older sister was trying on Uggs. The girl ended up selecting two pairs of Uggs and called her mother on her iPhone to tell her to meet them upstairs to pay for the shoes. The mother shows up and takes the two shoe boxes and goes to pay for them. The two daughters are standing there talking as the oldest one is also texting away and the mom comes back with the shoes saying "I didn't know it was that much, I'm not buying you both pairs it's too expensive. Pick one."

The oldest daughter flips out. She starts whining and demanding to get both and how unreasonable the her mother is being. The mother keeps insisting she only get one pair and the daughter screams no at her and how mad she is and the mom says that's it they are leaving and the daughter isn't getting anything. The little sister tries to mediate as the mother walks over to stand by the escalator to wait and asks the older sister which pair she liked better if she HAD to choose. The older sister snaps that she wants both and isn't not getting one. The older girl stalks off to sit down in the shoe department with the two boxes and starts texting away. The mother comes over and tries to hand her a stack of bills, but the girl screams at her and yells at her to get away from her. The mother gets fed up and says they are leaving and walks away. The little sister comes over to the older sister and tries to mediate again, but the older sister tells her to just go with their mother. The little girl goes over to the mother who hands her the stack of bills to give to the older sister and then takes the escalator down. The little sister takes the money to the older sister who takes it this time and then the little sister leaves.

Here's where it gets more insane. The older sister counts the money (it is a stack of 20's literally) and then starts muttering angrily and calls her mother on the phone in which she screams, and these are her exact words:

"You only gave me $300! You know that's not enough for both pairs! I need $400. Give me $400 dollars"

The mother says something on the other line and the girl responds:

"Yeah well I was supposed to be at Sara's at 3:00 and it's already 3:30 so I am already a half our late! At this rate I wont' be there until 4:00."

Mother says something and daughter responds with (here is the clincher):

"YOU NEED TO GROW UP! STOP ACTING LIKE A FUCKING CHILD!"

The girl hung up the phone in a huff and then sat there for a bit texting before picking one of the shoe boxes up and buying just one pair and leaving.

This is an excellent study on parenting isn't it? Even though her daughter screamed at her and swore at her she still gave her $300 dollars and she still got something. Excellent. I mean clearly this girl wasn't a spoiled little brat, no she just really likes her Uggs.