It was the most I've bitten my tongue in a long time

I was in Target today when I happened to come across the Halloween section. I decided to check out the selection of pet costumes, and I took a picture of them and sent it to K so he could help me choose one for Piper.

A woman who looked to be around my age was in the costume aisle, and her young daughter was sitting in the shopping cart. I'm terrible about guessing ages, but this girl couldn't have been older than 4. She was excited about picking out her costume, and she pointed out a couple things she liked. Her mom shot down both of them: a "scary costume" (understandable, I guess) and a banana (I thought the banana would've been pretty darn cute.).

The pair headed over to another aisle full of children's costumes. The mom found a Snow White costume and immediately picked it up. "Do you want to be Snow White? You'd be so cute!"

"No."

"Are you sure? You don't want to be Snow White?"

"No. I want to be Ariel," the girl said, pointing at a costume nearby.

I thought of the various Halloween costumes I had growing up. How fun it was to pick them out, how exciting it was to wear them, how awesome it felt to get to be my favorite character for a day. I remembered the tutu I insisted on wearing for days after Halloween was over, and how my parents let me do it.

The mom kept trying for a good couple minutes to persuade her daughter to choose the Snow White costume. Finally, it got to the point that the girl screamed, "NO!" (Inside, I was cheering the girl for sticking to her guns.) The mom slowly pushed the cart down the aisle to look at other costumes. The girl fell in love with a Tinkerbell costume.

I was still waiting for K to text me back. I couldn't see the pair anymore, but I could still hear them. The mom was reluctant to agree on Tinkerbell. She hadn't given up on Snow White! I was actually feeling bad for the girl. What's so bad about Tinkerbell?

The mom tried mentioning that Tinkerbell has blonde hair, while her daughter had dark hair, "like Snow White." The girl said they could just fix her hair to be light for the costume. The daughter seemed to have made her decision.

The mom pushed her daughter back to the front of the aisle, where the Snow White costume was. The mom actually said, "You really need to make up your mind on a costume."

I wish I could say the whole exchange ended there, but the mom kept trying! It was ridiculous. I was THISclose to saying to her, "You're a lucky mother to have such a smart daughter. She's able to make up her mind, and she sticks with it. She's going to be a successful lady someday if you nurture that."

But I kept my mouth shut, since I know moms often get unsolicited advice from strangers. Besides, what I really wanted to say? "SHE DOES NOT WANT TO BE SNOW WHITE! She'll make an adorable Tinkerbell. If you like the costume so much, YOU be Snow White!"