Let me explain why I am about to build a SHRINE around my isABelt! My isABelt today was my saving grace. Here’s my story. I have 3 wonderful children whom I love more than life itself! I have 2 boys, ages 18 and 15, and one adorable, sweet, angelic TEENAGE(13year old)GIRL!! Now don’t get me wrong, my daughter is AWESOME, BUT boy can she “short circuit”. Well today she certainly short circuited to the point where I almost wanted to call the junk yard or pawn shop (LOL). I was all over a fashion Dilema!!!! Those of you who don’t have children, OR don’t have girls, mixing a teenage girl and a fashion dilema is BAD!! Here’s what happened. My daughter had a “cocktail attire” party to go to tonight! Now, let me preface my story by saying that, last year, my daughter had a social function practically every weekend. And, we all know what a “faux pas” it would be to repeat the “same” dress with the “same” friends….heavens NO! So my daughter had at least 20 dresses. However, 2 days before the party she claims “I have NOTHING TO WEAR”. When I mentioned all the GREAT dresses in her closet, she looked at me like I was crazy and responded ” you want me to wear the same dresses? I don’t even like those dresses?” (Please don’t tell her father who footed the bills for “all” those dresses). To continue, one of my wonderful sisters, went to a great store in New Jersey, and picked out 2 dresses for my daughter. How unbelievably nice! She sent them next day so we would receive the dresses TODAY (the day of the party). Well, the box came. My daughter and I excitedly opened the box and took out the dresses. One of the dresses was “nice”, but not the right fit for my daughter, the second dress, however, I thought, was adorabel. Maybe if I DIDN”T say I “liked” the dress right away, my daughter would have been more open minded, but NOOOOOOO, right away she turns into a “devil child”…..Here are some of the things she said “I hate that dress”!, “I would never wear that”, “now I have nothing to wear and it
is YOUR fault”! ” You didn’t get me a dress”!, and “I have no shoes”, and on and on she ranted. I just stared at her, bewildered on where
my little sweet girl went.

Now, I had two choices:
1-I could have joined her at her own game, scream louder, drag her to her room, and bolt her door with 2 by 4.
OR
2-keep my dignity and IGNORE her tirade.

So I opted for number “2″. This drove her crazy!! Hahahahah!! She continued to try to rant on how she had nothing to
wear and I should take her to buy something and….blah, blah, blah. However, I told her calmly that I will not buy her anything new. If she was going to her party she will have to figure out what to wear on her own. As she stormed out of my room, me, being a softie, decided to see
if I had any ideas. In MY closet I found a great little dress that I wore to a couple of social events. I knew it was a long shot,
but I figured what have I got to lose. So as my daughter came back to my room still whimpering that she “had nothing to wear” I showed her MY
dress. She looked at me like I had 3 heads and left my room. Next thing I know she’s back in my room and she had slipped MY sequins
dress on. As I suspected, the dress, although nice, looked like she was a little girl playing “dress up” with her mommy’s clothes (which she was). It looked too big and frumpy. I told her this and told her to take it off. She went in my closet, and when she came out she was still wearing my sequins dress, but now it looked GREAT!! I couldn’t understand why. That’s when my daughter lifted the top part of the dress to reveal……THE ISABELT!!! She put the isABelt around the base of the skirted portion of the dress. Pulled the dress up to a more appropriate length, blousoned the top, and……..VOILA!!!! She had a dress for tonight! Check out the pics!! In that same instant my sweet, adorable, angelic, daughter came back from the land of the hormonal body snatchers. Not only did the isABelt save the “fashion emergency”, but it saved me from admitting myself to the rubber room. Thank you isABelt. WE LOVE YOU!

Help!! I have three teenage daughters and I now realize why animals eat their young. They probably only eat the female teens!

Volatile is about the best description for my mother/teenage daughter relationships. We’ve all borne witness to it.

My teenage daughters either view their mother as their best friend and confidant or as their sworn enemy, and my daughter’s opinion of me can change between the two in the blink of an eye.

I think hormones are part of the problem. I said “part,” and I certainly mean ONLY a part.

I’m nearing menopause, and my daughters are experiencing raging hormones. When the two meet,

an explosion is almost a given.

But, of course, hormones aren’t the only reason for the mother/teenage daughter conflict.

All parent-child relationships are intense. Most parents love their children to the depths of their being.

They would gladly lay down their life for their child. Parents tend to cling to their children, while the children are struggling for independence.

There isn’t much chance that conflict isn’t going to occur.

The idea is for both the mother and the daughter to survive those teenage years with the relationship changed,

but pretty much intact. The teenage daughter is going through a period of real internal conflict.

She wants BOTH! She wants her independence (her own identity) AND she wants the comfort of childhood.

It seems that adolescent girls feel a greater need to fight, defy, or rebel against their mother’s control than do teenage boys, possibly because they were MORE dependent on their mothers in their childhood years.

It’s a good idea, at the very first signs of a teenage girl’s inevitable struggle toward self-independence,

for the mother and the daughter to agree on some “terms of engagement.”

They can agree that neither of them will use terms like “you never,” or “you always.”

They can agree to wait to discuss intense issues until they have both had time to calm down.

They can agree to disagree and still love each other. WHEW!!