Rarrrhhh! (Soapbox warning!)

Today is schedule pickup day for both girls, and lemme tell you, if it wasn't, I'd have to . . . um . . . do something I might regret. (My mom suggests burying your offspring from the neck down from the ages of 12 to 18, leaving only their heads above ground so they can breathe and you can feed them , but I might have to extend that to age 10.) If they could both just groan and grumble a little more, it might set some kind of record for this summer.

Pick pick pick. Jab jab jab. Whiiiiiiiine. Louder, I can't hear you!

Shew.

So, we are ready for school to start in approximately 91 hours.

And mom is cranky. But not just because of all that. There's more.

I'm on a soapbox since last night when we went school clothes shopping at my formerly favorite store, Target. Well, I guess they'll have to stay my favorite discount store, because I realized as I did a little research on the Internet last night ALL the stores do this, not just Target.

We were in the girls' department, and my youngest got a hankering for a cute pair of capri pants in the school uniforms section. Understand, she's not required to wear uniforms at her school--other than a strict dress code that some days makes parents long for a uniform policy. However, as you know, I am domestically challenged, and uniforms would likely make me crazy, because they'd never be clean on the right days. Well, Todd would probably be organized enough it wouldn't be a problem, but if it were up to me .... I digress.

So, you remember my post a while back about the young girl who was "overweight?" (From China, or maybe it was Viet Nam, can't remember for sure.) I got on a soapbox about that because the kid was like 5'4" and 100 pounds or something, and they were saying she was overweight.

Well, I've got a new one for you.

As we were checking out the cute khaki capris with the pink and black polka-dotted interfacing and striped ribbon belt, we noticed something. When I got home, I researched it further because it was bugging me that much. At Target, Walmart, JC Penney, and I'm sure any number of other department stores, they charge $2.00 extra for girls' plus size uniform items.

Yeah. Seriously.

Okay, I can kind of understand the extra charge for adult plus size clothing. It does take more material to create larger-sized clothing, and perhaps there are some other considerations on equipment, etc. BUT LITTLE GIRLS. Let's do the math. If you are a size 12+ little girl, your pants are still smaller than a size 16 regular little girl. And shorter. BUT, because you have that little plus on the end of the tag that allows your pants to fit your little pre-teen poochy belly body without the legs dragging five inches past your feet, you pay $2.00 extra. Or at least your parents do.

I really can't say much else without getting ugly other than what kind of message is this sending our little girls? Even at age 8 (yes, 8+'s also pay the extra two bucks), you should somehow fit into the "ideal" we have created for female bodies in this country. (And yeah, they do it for the boys, too, in the "husky" sizes. I checked.) Is this new, or have they always done this for kids? I just don't remember, but it doesn't seem like it. I am glad they have responded to the fact that not all kids come in the same sizes and shapes, but still. I don't see them giving a $2.00 upcharge (or even discount. HA!) for the slim sizes, by the way. Sounds like unequal treatment to me.

Excuse me while I go puke.