Lost in the Mall

Fourteen year old girls are peculiar creatures, sometimes energetic and giggly and sometimes too sleepy to wake up till 2pm. I am experiencing the joys and frustrations of living with a 14 yr old girl for the 3rd time. I was looking forward to a shopping trip to the mall with “A” and my husband. This is an unusual event that turned into a very miserable experience. We all walked in the mall together but “A” went to the junior dept while “D” and I went to browse the men’s dept. We have all become very dependent on cell phones to keep track of each other. But today my cell phone battery was dead and “A” does not have a cell phone (lost it because of texting her life away). I started for the jr dept dressing room to check on “A” thinking my husband was behind me. Although he thought Ill just stay behind and hang out in the mens dept. As the time slipped by I enjoyed the questions of “what do you think mom? Was she really asking my opinion? Wow this is fun. She decided on her new pair of jeans. So now where is dad? We looked around thinking he couldn’t have strayed far. Maybe he went to the shoe dept. “A” and I wandered over to the shoe dept commenting on the styles and how the boots she thought were cute look like boots I wore back in the 80s. Still enjoying the time but wondering in the back of my mind how are we going to find “D” without a cell phone? We had not communicated well. As I expressed my concern to”A” her attitude went from sweet to angry and irritated in a second. ”How could you lose him he is not a little child.”Why didn’t you make a plan?” She scolded me. I said I guess we will have to find a pay phone and call your dad. So we headed for the customer service dept to call “D”. When we reached customer service I realized pay phones no longer exist. I had to ask to use the stores phone. I called my husband’s cell and he didn’t answer. Now what? The clerk suggested we page him in the store. He did not respond. Where could he be? I said to A” I’m going out to the car to see if he is waiting there. He was not there. With no better ideas I suggested we walk to the food court he knew we were hungry. He was not there. As we walked back from the food court “A” lit into me again about how could I lose dad she was now angrier than ever without difficulty or apprehension in telling me how she is feeling. My much anticipated shopping trip turned into another opportunity for “A” to verbally abuse me. I was hurt she could speak to me so cruel. I spoke up as we walked and said stop talking to me this way. You’re speaking to your mom. Somewhere from the past I remembered when you lose someone go back to where you last saw them. So we headed back to where we started. “D” had found a chair near the Jr dept and was waiting patiently for us. To my surprise “A” was not done with her outbursts of anger at both her dad and I. “You two are ridiculous lost puppies” Sad and hurt I made my way to the car with “A” berating her dad and I. In the car I addressed “A” with my strong disappointment in her behavior. About 15min after we returned home I experienced one of the best blessings a mom can experience. My 14yr old shared regret and genuinely apologized and asked forgiveness for her behavior at the mall. Life is full of blessings sometimes their found because someone gets lost at the mall.