The Mom Memo

Sugar and Spice and...Booty Shorts?

Shopping for girls isn't such a rosy experience for parents who want to dress their daughters in age-appropriate fashions.

The other day, my oldest son put on a pair of jeans only to reveal his ankles. Yet another growth spurt has hit our home, which meant a trip to Chesterfield Mall. When the oldest was a toddler, my shopping trips used to be riddled with frustration over the paltry clothing selection reserved for boys. For little girls, there seemed to be an endless array of tops and bottoms in every color of the rainbow and every imaginable print. I was forced to scuttle over to the boys' side of the store, eager to find something that wasn't just a solid color or boring stripe. A few summers back, during a routine park play date, I chatted with a mom who had two young girls. I lamented my shopping frustrations in the boys' section to her. She had to be …