Emily F: Shopping?>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>??????
My daughter is 13 and she says she wants to shop by herself, but im not sure how old she has to be before she can go out by herself. She yoused 2 get embarresed when i would come in with her when she was like 12 so i would give her some money and wait for her right outside the store. But she wants to actually start like shopping with her friends bythemselves. What should i say?
Answers and Views:
Answer by Official FOF.[father of four]
She’s 13 years old. She’s becoming a young women. As parents it’s hard to let our older ones go ( and younger). Face the fact that their growing up. My 13 year old daughter used to get embarrased when I would come with her and help her pick clothes out. What did I do? I supplied her with a cellphone, i made her call me when she got in the store and when she was leaving. My daughter goes shopping with her friends- she has a cellphone and calls me multiple times while at the store and/or i call her.
Give her a little freedom in this. Go to the mall and let her meet her friends there or pick them up and take them all. When you get there, drop them off and say you will be back in an hour and a half at a certain spot. Let her know that you have some shopping to do also, but she and her friends are free to go to whatever stores are appropriate (no 13 year old needs to go to the Victoria Secret store).
If they make it back to the meeting place, then you know she is ready for a little more time. If they don’t make it back in time, let them try again another day but for an hour. Freedom comes with responsibility but she is getting to the age where she can try a little more of both.
Answer by Jessica SI know it’s hard to give her more and more free privileges, but your better off letting her have the comfort of being able to ask you openly to go someplace with your permission then her sneaking behind your back to places. I mean, let’s face it: people always want what they can’t have. Believe me, I’m thirteen too, and I get to shop by myself now, in small malls in my town. If your talking about a big mall, then no, she’s not quite at that yet. Get the opinion of a few parents if your not sure, and ask around and phone up her friends’ parents to see what they think. If they say yes, their comfortable with it then sure, give it a try. Give her a cell phone to carry with her, and make sure there are rules set. Have her call you every so often, lets say every half hour or so. Have her shop with a few of her friends, at her age I’d say at least 2 other friends. Make sure you both know what time drop-off/pickup is, and who is doing it. Also, be sure she know’s which stores she is allowed to go into, and which stores are off-limits. Tell her possible consequeces for breaking these rules, so she will think twice about disobeying. Just give her a little bit of freedom at a time, step by step. Just don’t say yes to everything so she doesn’t get on her high-horse. Hope this helps! 🙂
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