Shoe Therapy

One of the saddest things I hear while working at the shoe store is from middle aged women that say, "This store isn't for me, I'm just a mom." What do you mean this store isn't for your? Are there not shoes you like here? Does it have too much soul, too much fun that you can no longer enjoy? Does being a mother automatically mean disliking shopping? And when did you become "just a mom?" What were you before? Was there some sort of identity you had before becoming a mother that disappeared the moment you discovered you were pregnant? Or were you nothing before and the most you'll ever be is "just" a mom? It's odd - men never say things like this: "Oh, this store isn't for me, this store is for my son. I'm just a dad." No, it's solely women that box themselves into their unhappy lives; women that watch their daughters enjoy things like funky boutiques and fabulous shoes. It's like the mothers live vicariously through their daughters but then what happens when the daughters become mothers, too? Are they "just" moms now and everything they were before vanishes? Betty Friedan wrote the Feminine Mystique in '63 but now, nearly forty six years later, the ideas still ring true. What's more fulfilling than letting yourself go in a store you love with products you can't enough of. Mothers, daughters, sisters, and aunts, let's go shopping. After all, we're just girls.