Do you love it? I love it? I'm having a baby at Ross

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I get compliments about my attire all the time and I always tell the person complimenting me that I got it at Ross. In the 90's some genius came up with the add campaign,

"Do you love it?"

"I love it."

"I got it at Ross!"

To this day whenever I get a compliment from a Ross purchase I hear that simple jingle in my head. I am not the kind of person who is proud at paying a shit ton of money for an item of clothing. I am proud to pay a little amount for a one of a kind item. Ross is one step up from finding a gem at a thrift store. When you find something at Ross there are no duplicate items like in most department stores, so it feels special and unique.  Here's an example of the genius campaign slogan. This one is for Father's Day.

                                    

 

My mother is a bargain shopper. We always skip to the back of the store to check the clearance rack. Why pay full price one week to have an item go on sale the next? We both share a love for Ross.

 

We were in Camarillo, California visiting family and I was nine weeks pregnant. This was the weekend that I would tell my parents. I was planning to lead with some joke and show them my sonogram. But that half ass plan flew out the window when my mother decided to take me clothes shopping at Ross. As I was looking for clothing I thought about what kind I could get that would accommodate my growing size but I could also wear after the pregnancy. So, I gathered up some random clothes to try on and headed to the dressing room with my mother.

 

My mother and I follow the same trying on routine we have performed since I can remember: if we find something we like we ask the other one to give it a look see. My mother was changing across the hall from my dressing room. I found a striped toga thingy that I thought would be appropriate for before/after pregnancy. I asked my mother to give it a look see, we both opened our doors, she gave it a nod, and I gave an hers a oh-no! and in unison we shut our doors and began trying on our next items. But, I needed my mother's advice, so I decided to coyly ask her questions while looking at myself in the mirror at the toga, "Do you think that toga will look good on me if I get fatter?"

"Fatter?"

"Yeah, you know, if I gain weight?"

"You can't afford to get any fatter. What do you mean fatter?"

"You know...fatter?"

"What do you mean? Like Alden and Allie fat?" Alden and Allie are my cousins. Allie was fat because Allie was pregnant.

"Sort of."

"What!" The high shrill of my mother's 'what' probably alarmed all of the Ross customers inside the women's dressing room, yet she continued, "What?!"

In unison again we opened our doors, but this time I was still in the toga and my mother had no clothing on to show me. There she stood: in her mismatched bra and panties, wide-eyed, almost drooling. "You're kidding me?"

"Mom!" I looked around the dressing room hallway.

"You're kidding me!"

"Nope."

"Oh, that's so cool." My mother then proceeded to walk across the hall into my dressing room. She hugged me and kept repeating, "That's so cool." She didn't bother to shut the door, so I closed it for her. There's a certain point when you're hugging your almost naked mother that you want to release. It was a little awkward especially because I'm the kind of person that is not so wild about sentiment when it comes to all things girly like: hope chests, weddings, and babies. I remembered this as my mom kept saying, "That's so cool." Was it cool? I know now that the answer is yes, but then, I was a little overwhelmed by the pregnancy. I mean, I am not Money Bags Malone. In order to have my mother quit the embrace I politely asked her,

"Mom, do you want to wear some clothes on your way back?"

"Nah." My mother sauntered into the dressing room hallway in her undergarments a new woman, a future grandmother.She bought me all my clothes that day. I get compliments on them. Every girl should tell their mom they're pregnant while clothes shopping, because your mom can't help herself. And why put her out and make her buy you stuff at Nordys? My advice: tell her at Ross.