rhinestone dreams
I grew up in East Texas. So don’t be surprised when I confess that as a child, I was very active in beauty pageants. And I loved every single minute of them. Staying in a hotel with a pool, wearing pretty dresses, singing on stage, every so often winning some rhinestones...this was the stuff of dreams for me.
As long as I continued to enjoy them, Mom was very encouraging. But pageants could be expensive (not that I realized that at the time.) Entry fees, outfits, the hotel...it’s a whole thing. Between this, my sister’s softball tournaments, and my brother’s dirt bike races, a huge chunk of my parents’ budget went towards extracurriculars. Things could get pretty tight.
I recall one year I needed a new outfit--a sportswear, as they called it, which was confusing cause it wasn’t sporty. Think: seven-year-old First Lady of Texas. Anyway, the point is that I needed a new one. While many mothers were shelling out large sums of money for these outfits that their child would quickly outgrow, Kim had a better idea…
My mother had this beautiful, midnight blue strapless gown with tiny sparkles embedded in the fabric (again, the stuff of dreams.) She wore this to her prom junior year, and I must say, she looked like an 80s Barbie. I’ve reason to believe my mom loved this dress. But she destroyed it, without a thought, for me. That swoon-worthy prom dress became my sportswear, complete with rhinestones.
During those pageant years, my mom also took an extra job within the pageant organization to help offset the costs. This is who she was and is: hard-working and resourceful.
Looking back, although she was good at being frugal, mom doesn’t think she was very good at saving money. But she doesn’t feel bad about it now the way she did then. She knows that she was investing in her kids, in her family, in our collective future. We were rich in experiences and memories that would shape who we’d become. She recognizes that being present in those moments was far more important than stressing about finances.
Specifically, to young mothers who feel financially behind, my mom said this:
“Are your kids happy? If yes, then what else is there?”
