WINNING Homecoming With Your Teen
The dress came off a clearance rack. The hard part had nothing to do with the dress.
After the Macy's order and the Revolve order. After the trying on, the debating, the boxing things back up to send them back. The one she loved was hanging at Dillard's, marked down, waiting on her the whole time.
It was beautiful right off the rack. But my girl had a vision, and the vision involved alterations. Because every girl knows the dress is only the beginning.
So that was the fun part. The shopping, the maybes, the no-not-that-one, the yes. If you are deep in dress season right now, I see you and the perfect dress is out there.
The part I do not always say out loud
My girl does not get the group get-ready invite. She is not in the pre-homecoming videos. She did not even know which of her friends were going.
She has been here since kindergarten, and she has noticed what I have watched for a while now. She has not found her people in this place. She is well liked by many and truly known by few.
I found a name for it recently. Fringe friendships. She is everybody's friend from Monday to Friday, in the hallway, at the lunch table, in the group project. But it all seems to end when the last school bell rings. It does not follow her home. It does not carry into the weekend.
The inclusion as a friend stops at the school door. That is a specific kind of lonely, the kind that does not show on a smiling face.
It makes me sad. I will be honest about that. But people are weird, and it has never dimmed her light. It has never kept her from a good time or from walking in as exactly herself. There is nothing about my girl that is not worth knowing.
So here is what I decided
If I only get four homecomings, I am going to enjoy every single one. Making it special was never going to come from a group chat she was not in. It was going to come from the people who actually show up. This year, that person was me.
We shopped. We debated. We sent things back. We found the dress. We planned the alterations down to the last detail. We made the whole thing ours. She did not get ready in a room full of teenage girls. She got ready with me, and she still let me be the one in the room that knows her the best. I am honored by that.
Your daughter does not need a crowd to be celebrated. She needs one person who would not miss it for anything.
So if your girl is well liked and still a little lonely, if she shows up as herself and the room has not caught up to her yet, I see you. Keep showing up. You get to be her person for now, and that counts for more than the photo everyone else is in.
Two things if this is your season too
If the friendship piece is the part that aches, I made a free guide for helping your child recognize and build the real thing. It is called the Friendship Blueprint, and it is free.
And if you are still hunting, I pulled my homecoming dress picks into one place so for inspo.
The rest of this one, the alterations and how the night actually turned out, lives in Truly Yours. It is my weekly letter, free for now, and it is where the real stories go first.
Comments