She Asked Her Mom to Help Her Pick a Black Prom Dress. Then Her Mom Insisted on Wearing It Herself
Pexels
There’s a reason that prom – a largely American tradition – has taken off around the world. Because for most of us, there aren’t many opportunities in life to get all dressed up and have a night of dancing with our friends. So having that opportunity at school to put on your best clothes – maybe even get a special dress and have your hair and make up done for the occasion – take photos and dance with your friends is wonderful.
And even though the girl in this story isn’t particularly girly, she was still excited about getting dressed up for prom in her junior year of high school. So she asked her mom with help picking out a dress, with the sole stipulation that it should be black. But when the dress arrived, she got her first of several unsettling surprises.
Read on to find out more.
AITA for feeling weird that my mom just randomly wanted to wear my prom dress?
I’m a senior in high school, and last year (junior year) was my first time going to prom.
To be honest I was swamped with APs and extracurriculars, so when the time came to pick out a dress, I mostly just let my mom pick one for me.
She showed me a few black dresses, which was the only input from me, and I just picked one.
This was a roughly month before prom, so it would have enough time to arrive.
Let’s see how this student felt about her prom dress.
I have never been too girly, like I didn’t really care about appearances until going into high school, and I never bothered with makeup or anything, so it wasn’t a big deal that my mom picked it for me or I didn’t pick my own.
I cared more about senior year prom anyway.
However, I remember coming home and my mom saying my dress arrived, I was still excited to go try and on, only to find that the package was clearly cut open.
I asked her what happened and if she opened it, and she casually admitted to it and said she was checking if it was right dress, and very causally in the last sentence admitted it was a bit tight.
Yikes. Read on to find out more about this strange comment.
So I ask if she tried it. And she admitted to having tried it on when it arrived, “just to see what it would look like”.
You might be thinking I’m a hypocrite, but this did irk me slightly, especially because I could never picture any of my friends mothers doing this, wearing their prom dress and trying it on before they had the chance to.
I would be lying if I didn’t feel a bit disappointed and even weirded out.
I did not bring it up to my mom, as she is always lenient with me borrowing her clothes for interviews and whatnot or for school events, so I thought I could move past it.
Let’s see what happened after she went to prom.
Prom goes by, very fun. Fast forward to now, a new school year, and she comes in and says she needs to borrow a dress and beelined to my prom dress, saying she wanted the “tight” one specifically, asking if she could and if I minded.
I did mind, but my mom is the type to take it personally so I agreed albeit reluctantly.
What irks me isn’t the dress or anything, but it’s the way my mom buys clothes quiet frequently, her closet is triple mine, she has dresses that are better more expensive than my prom dress, she orders new shoes and clothes so much so there’s a few she admits she hasn’t even had the chance to wear yet.
With all that, she still wants to wear my prom dress? Her teenage daughter’s clothes? Maybe I’m looking into it too deeply, and I need to be more generous but I just felt weird about it. Is this normal? Would other, moms specifically do this?
AITA?
It’s really understandable that this daughter is upset about her mom not only wanting to borrow her prom dress, but trying it on before she even had a chance to.
Because prom dresses are special, and even though she wasn’t too bothered about picking one out herself, she should have been allowed for that dress to be hers and hers alone.
Sign up to get our BEST stories of the week straight to your inbox.
It’s very different to just borrowing some clothes for an interview – and honestly, it really seems like mom picked this dress out for herself.
Read on to find out what folks on Reddit thought about this.
This person thought that the mom’s behaviour was very odd.
While others agreed that she seemed to have chosen the dress as much for herself as for her daughter.
If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a sister who feels badly about unknowingly encouraging her younger brother to play with bullies.
Meanwhile, this Redditor thought that there were bigger problems with this mom than just the dress.
Honestly, the mom sounds quite self-centred. It’s very weird to try on your daughter’s prom dress – especially before she gets the chance to – even if you are the same size as her. A prom dress is special, and she should have had the chance to open it and try it on first herself. As superficial as it might seem, knowing that her mom has tried it on first taints it somewhat. And sure it’s great that her mom found her a prom dress, but with all this context it seems like the mom picked out something she liked, knowing that it would also fit her and that she’d be able to borrow it after prom.
Because that’s exactly the point – she knew she’d be able to borrow it. Because although she ‘asked’ her daughter, we all know that this wasn’t really a question, and that her daughter wouldn’t feel like she should say no. So it’s no wonder that the daughter is feeling weird about this, even though she struggles to really name why. Because something that should have been special and for her was actually all about her mom all along.
Enjoyed this story?
Sign up to get our BEST stories of the week straight to your inbox.
