The Addiction

After The Wee Man was born, I didn’t want to buy myself any clothes until I lost the ton or two of baby weight I gained. But I still needed my regular retail therapy sessions. Since I couldn’t be the beneficiary of my shopping habit, The Wee Man got decked out in a lot of clothes.

Almost every week for the first four months of his life, I went trolling for new outfits. Sometimes I would just browse but sometimes the addiction would take over.

The worst occurred back in April. One of my favorite stores brought out a summer line with gophers playing golf as the motif. (C’mon! Gophers playing golf – how cute is that?!) My pupils started to dilate, I got the shakes, and before I knew it, I was well on my way to another shopping high. Just one thing though: I didn’t simply get high, I overdosed. I bought every item that had that motif and The Wee Man was kitted out for the whole summer.

Yes, it was more clothes than one growing baby needed. And, yes, it cost more than one new mother should spend on a growing baby. But I needed my fix and this store knew how to deliver.

Since the o.d., I have stayed well away from shopping for The Wee Man. I needed detox and knew to avoid all bad influences. I didn’t go into this store for four whole months. I was doing well with my recovery. That is, until Grandma arrived.

My mom wanted to do some fall clothes shopping for The Wee Man. We had pretty much wrapped things up when we decided to “quickly pop into” the store I had avoided since April. It was like a junkie going back into the crack house. When I saw the current fall line with the bear cub motif (C’mon! Bear cubs – how cute is that?!), things started to go downhill. If my mom wasn’t there, I would have bought the whole line, I swear. But I managed to escape with two shirts and a baseball cap.

So, obviously, I still have a ways to go dealing with “my issues”. But I didn’t fall off the wagon with a big of thud as I thought I would. No need for a 12-step program – yet.