Riding a bike 500km? Pffft. I've been clothes shopping today with my three girls. I was not born to shop like many women - and I've shunned fashion for comfort more and more as I get older and wiser - so I think of a clothes shopping expedition much in the same way that others would contemplate riding a bike 20 kilometres. It's hard enough dragging myself through fitting rooms for my own clothes, so anytime I do it with and for three children, I feel like I deserve a medal by the end of it.

Ms 13 announced the other day that she 'had no clothes' for summer, and it is true that she has grown, and grown out of a lot of things, so I figured that today had to be shopping day... and it was best to do it while Dad was away, so we weren't missing out on doing the weekend family thing.

What a way to spend a lovely spring Sunday! Not.

To be truthful though, they are getting a bit better. There was nothing we absolutely HAD to get (like when my mum gives them money to buy outfits every Christmas but I have to take them shopping for them.) I managed today on 2 cups of calming coffee, which isn't too bad. Thought we could get in and out by lunchtime, but that was aiming too high. Spent a heap, but there is no choice unless you want to go shopping lots of times! Get it all over and done with, I say.

I've been dreading the 'teenage girl' shop thing, and we first went into Supre. (Trendy, supposedly discount, teenage shop with the loud music.) Alison had a $20 gift voucher for there, and Cait, I think, felt like she should be buying more 'in' type clothes. "But it's the fashion Mum," she's been known to say, rolling her eyes at me.

Arrrgh! The music! Perhaps all the girls who buy there have their own funds, because I can't imagine why it wouldn't put off most 'middle aged' mothers operating the purse strings. My head was starting to thump in time with the music and I could feel the crankiness starting to well up in me. Not a good start to the expedition. There was nothing to suit an 11 year old, and Hallelujah! the 13 year old still has enough sense to realise that denim knee length pants at $45 aren't a really sensible economic choice! And when she showed me a skirt with a waist would have reached half way up (or half way down?) her bum crack, I said NO. "While I am buying the clothes I have the right to say no to ones that make you look like - pardon the expression - a slut."

Target here we come. And it was quiet! Bliss. Knee length denim pants for $25. A bargain compared to Supre. And she came away happy with a few shorts, and tops. Alison and Zoe got skirts and tops. Happy days.

Onwards (and downwards in "quality"), but happily Best & Less and Big W had the odd thing (like PJs) to keep them happy, and keep me happy that I am getting away without having to buy the expensive surfie brands that cost 3 times as much but could still get ruined just as quickly with food or grass or dirt stains.

Zoe's favourite buy today was a Best & Less t-shirt for $7 that has "Stop talking! It's my Turn" on it. It's as if the designer has been sitting at our dinner table some nights when Zoe chucks a wobbly because she can't get a word in edgeways.

And more kudos to Caitlin (she has a brain after all!) She has the sense to dislike the current fashion of wearing tops that have a sports type back, with a normal bra, so that the bra straps show, big time. What is with that look?! Bra straps and bum cracks! Blah!

My other big fashion whinge is the dearth of nice summer sandals for kids the age mine are! We went through this last year, and could find nothing, absolutely nothing, for Alison that looked ok, and that she found comfortable. The world is crazy. You buy your kids a nice outfit so they'll look nice if you go out somewhere. And what can they wear on their feet? Thongs. (That's the Aussie 'thong' that is footwear of the flip flop, uncomfortable thing-in-between-your-toes variety.) As their feet are now nearing adult size, there is the choice of high heels, but again they (still) have the sense to realise that they can't walk in them properly and would quite possibly fall off them and do their ankles! (And I am relieved that they won't be starting too early on the path to doing their back in or throwing their posture out!)

In another miracle, we found sandals for Zoe that weren't too wide on her skinny feet (and which she just LOVED). Just as well, because she can't handle thongs.) After having already trawled through the usual shoe shops, Target and Big W, I wasn't expecting to find something in Payless Shoes, but the shopping gods were smiling on me today.

Cait and Alison came away with compromise dress thongs (after trying on dozens that were uncomfortable), and after a long grilling from me about just how long they could keep them on their feet if we were out somewhere. "Like, if we were at a restaurant, if you got up to walk to the loo or something, then you would have to keep them on your feet." and "Like at Papa's funeral...(though I certainly hope we don't have any more funerals to go to this year)... but you would have had to keep them on your feet throughout the service, and through the wake. Like that length of time."

A compromise, though. I have to face facts. The fashion world and me just don't have much in common, (you guessed it, I'm a dag!) and it's a challenge for me to manoeuvre my girls, as they grow, through the fashion minefield, and help them balance faddism, comfort, wanting to look nice, and basic economics).

I've had worse shopping marathons, I have to say. Hopefully the girls will continue to get better. But I still want a medal!