The Quest: A Public Service Announcement

My girls and I found ourselves with some free time yesterday afternoon, and as we were already out, they decided it would be a good time to go on The Quest. You know...The Quest for this year's pool apparel. Anyone who has pre-teen or teen girls, and who actually cares what their girls wear outside of their bedroom, understands how incredibly difficult The Quest can be. Slightly less fun than getting your teeth cleaned.

Now, I have to say, I am blessed. I have never had to engage in debate with either of them over what is appropriate, and what is not. They understand the parameters clearly. As they demonstrated yesterday, they have made those standards their own.

We visited six stores. I did little to no work. I followed them through store after store, through display after display, while they sorted through the few "acceptable" options, eventually finding almost all of them unacceptable. I gave little direction. Occasionally I would point one or another choice out, each time to be turned down. It got old fast. I was ready to be done, but they were on a Quest and determined to find something. I began to realize at some point that they had a plan, a vision, and they just needed to fulfill it. So I followed along, and drove from store to store.

It was in the last store that the Quest reached it's end and the vision was fulfilled. Tim Hawkins has a comedy set that refers to finding what you are looking for in the last place you look. It always applies. In the last store, both girls went through the usual browsing, showing little interest in what was available, and were clearly disinterested in the options. Eventually, both made their way to another part of the store.

This is the public service announcement portion of this post. I want to offer the following suggestion to you moms with girls who would like something a little different this year. I would have never thought of this on my own. I thought it was pretty brilliant of them to come up with this.

They went from this area of the store:



To this one:












And what they ended up with was something like this:



The fabric is water resistant, basically the same stuff the swimwear is made of. The top is longer than a swimsuit top, so it sits over their hips instead of edging up and showing belly. It is also snugly fitted so it won't flow up with the water. I suppose you (or your girl) could wear regular swim bottoms with the top if the color matched, but my girls have taken to preferring shorts anyway. Either way, you are going to want bottoms under the shorts, but you probably already have a drawer full. Also, depending on her age, size, etc. you are probably going to need "something" under the top, but the makers of these tanks make coordinating "sports bras". And the cost of the whole outfit? At JC Penny, where everthing is 40% off right now, $51 and some change.

Bingo! This has been your public service announcement for the summer. Happy swimming!